


of an endless summer

by petals



Category: One Direction (Band), Zayn Malik (Musician)
Genre: Alternate Universe, American AU, M/M, Minor Harry Styles/Daisy Lowe, Minor Liam Payne/Sophia Smith, Minor Nick Grimshaw/Louis Tomlinson, Sexual Content, Summer Camp, Summer Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-07
Updated: 2015-07-07
Packaged: 2018-04-04 12:17:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 27,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4137204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/petals/pseuds/petals
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zayn shrugs unapologetically. “My first time away from home,” he admits with a blush that make Niall’s knees feel weak. “But there are perks, I think.” </p><p>“Yeah, I love it here,” Niall says. “It’s kind of nice getting paid to do stuff like this, like watch kids swim in the lake, while you either swim with them, or you could even read a book. I don’t know, there’s a lot to love.” </p><p>“Not really the perk I was thinking of,” Zayn says. “But yeah, sure. The lake, whatever.” </p><p>Niall stares at him, watching as Zayn winks before he goes back to his food.</p>
            </blockquote>





	of an endless summer

**Author's Note:**

  * For [BansheeOdair](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BansheeOdair/gifts).



> I hope you enjoy! Thank you to my wonderful, amazing beta, who indulges me with every fic I write! She's the best. All remaining mistakes are my own, though. And of course, standard disclaimer of the fact that I don't know them, don't own them, and please don't put this on any other site!

Niall’s first camper shows up nearly an hour before the camp is actually set to open. It’s not a big deal, not really, except for Niall’s nagging worry that he’s going to actually have to entertain these parents until more kids show up, just because it’s the four of them standing around inside the cabin. But his worry is for nothing, really.

The parents introduce themselves and their son, Mason, who’s looking around like he’d rather be anywhere else while his parents talk to Niall. They don’t really seem interested in the camp and what’ll happen while their son is here, instead they’re telling Niall about Mason, how he’s nine years old and he gets scared during thunder storms, along with everything else he needs to know about him.

And then, as quickly as they arrived, they’re gone, kissing and hugging Mason, wishing him the best summer possible, and promising to call and write, asking him to do the same.

Mason takes their goodbye in stride; staring out of the cabin door and watching them walk back to the car. There are tears in the little boy’s eyes, his lip quivering. He doesn’t cry, though, and for that Niall’s thankful. Niall’s not really good with tears. Louis is the go-to person for when a child is crying. Niall learned this last summer, when he had twins in his cabin, who spent most of the summer wishing they were anywhere else.

Niall places a hand on Mason’s shoulder, trying to break the kid’s gaze and get him to focus on something other than his parent’s departure. He looks up at Niall, tears pooling along his bottom lashes as he blinks, while he tries to hide them away.

“How about we get you unpacked? The other kid’s will be arriving shortly,” Niall tells him, sliding his hand from his shoulder to his back so that he can help guide the boy towards his bags. “You can pick any bed you want, since you’re first.”

“Is that one yours?” Mason asks, pointing towards the one in the middle of the room. Niall nods.

There are seven beds in the room, six for the campers and one for Niall. Niall’s has been pulled in the middle, pressed against the wall. The rest of the beds are lined up against the wall, three on each side.

“Can I sleep on this one?” Mason asks, pointing towards the one directly to the right of Niall’s.

“Anywhere you want.”

Mason nods, grabbing his bag and dragging it over. He pulls out an orange bed sheet and gets to work, looping it under the corners of the mattress. As they work Niall sees the way that Mason relaxes, distracted from thoughts of his parents with having something to do.

“They’re going to Paris,” Mason admits, carefully unfolding his Ironman blanket that goes over his sheets. He blushes when the image is revealed, but Niall winks at him, setting the boy at ease. He doesn’t really care who is on a kid’s blanket, as long as they’re not crying.

“Who is?”

Mason looks at Niall like he’s annoyed with how badly Niall is processing this. “My parents,” he says, sighing as he tosses his pillow onto the bed. “They’ll be gone for two weeks.”

“Well, you’ll be here, and it’s loads of fun,” Niall tells him. “And you’re signed up for all kinds of activities. I know your swimming coach pretty well, and I know you’re going to have loads of fun with that. He’s got a thing for superheroes too; I bet you’ll have a lot to talk about.”

Mason grins at that, unzipping his bag to shove clothes onto the shelves beside his bed.

By the time they’re finished making Mason’s bed and unpacking his bags, it’s time for the other kids to arrive. Niall hopes the rest of them are as easy as this one, but that’ll only happen if he’s lucky.

>>>>

The dining cabin is packed with kids when Niall and his cabin manage to reach their table, plates of food in their hands. Mason sticks close to him, choosing to sit next to him, nearly shoving another boy out of the way.

Niall does a head count, counting six – Mason, Amuary, Henry, Oscar, Marcus and Ryan – before he focuses on his food. Burgers. A safe food for everyone, the camp has found. Soon it’ll be Niall in the kitchen with some kids, a different cabin almost everyday, making snacks and side dishes for the camp. Those are the meals that Niall’s looking forward to, being able to see the look of pride on the kids’ faces when they watch the other campers happily eat their food, tossing compliments around to those who’ve made it.

It makes Niall feel good, especially since he can’t work as one of the sport coordinators now that his knee is a complete waste.

Looking around the dining hall, Niall sees a bunch of familiar faces. Louis is at the table behind him, with Harry next to them. He sees Caroline and Louise and Perrie as well, the three of them sitting amongst their cabins. There are three counselors he doesn’t recognize though - he’s not sure why he doesn’t recognize them, since all the counselors arrived last night. Surely he must have seen them at some point. One of them is a girl with long hair, braided and pulled up. She’s cute, Niall notes, watching her appreciatively for a moment before his eyes drift off to the brunette at the table behind her.

Finally, though, Niall’s eyes find the boy at the table behind Harry’s. He’s…well, Niall’s under no illusions that he’s not the most attractive counselor they have. He’s also under no illusions that this boy would never in a million years go for him. But that doesn’t stop him from turning in his chair, leaning back and tapping Louis on the shoulder.

“What?” Louis asks, turning around to face Niall.

“Who’s that guy over there? The new one?” Niall asks, nodding in the direction of the pretty boy.

“Zayn,” Louis says without hesitation, mouth filled with food. “He’s in the cabin next to mine, on the end. I met him earlier. He couldn’t make it yesterday, had a family thing, but he got here this morning, or something.”

“Huh,” Niall mumbles, turning back around in his seat. Zayn. It’s nice. It suits him.

Zayn’s currently listening to one of the kids as they talk wildly next to him, arms waving around as he chomps on his fries. Niall watches him until the kid on his left – Marcus – starts tugging on his shirt, trying to get his attention.

“What’s up?” Niall asks, turning towards him, regretfully tearing his eyes away from the pretty boy across the room.

Marcus sighs and Niall knows he’s about to launch into something his nine-year-old mind deems very serious.

>>>>

Niall’s cabin is filled with boys between the ages of eight and twelve - most of them eight to ten, since there’s only one twelve year old amongst them. It’s nice having a cabin that still wants to hang out with him, for now at least. Last year his cabin was filled with thirteen and fourteen year olds, all of them going through too much angst and wanted nothing to do with him.

This year his cabin is excited, the sadness of their parents leaving long forgotten, as they march across the campgrounds towards the arts and crafts cabin. Niall’s not sure what kind of crafts these boys are going to want to do, but that’s why he’s not the arts coordinator, because he’s not very good at this bit of camp.

“Niall, when do we get to go swimming in the lake?” Oscar asks, staring longingly at the mass of water.

“Not until later,” Niall tells him.

The camp is set up funny, in Niall’s opinion. The days starting out with breakfast and then working into a short break for everyone to get dressed and ready for the day before they head off towards the first activity. The activity depends on the day, if it’s an A, B, or C day. As the day goes on, the campers participate in more and more activities, stopping only for meals and rest hours. Most nights there is a nightly activity picked out by Paul, the guy who runs the camp, before bedtime, only to start it all over again the next day.

Niall thinks summer camp should consist of more time to just have fun, to do what you want, and not to force kids into doing things they might not want to do. But none of the campers are complaining, not yet, so Niall’s not going to voice his regular complaints about the structured schedule to Paul until he has to, when the kids start driving him nuts.

“How much later?” Mason asks, walking as close to Niall as he can. “My mom packed me three pairs of swim trunks. I hope that's enough.”

“It will be,” Niall tells him, smiling. “I’ve only got one.”

Mason looks scandalized. Niall offers him a wink as he walks up the steps of the arts cabin, shuffling them all inside. They all rush to the different tables, staring excitedly at the supplies laid out for them.

“You’re five minutes late,” a voice says from behind him and Niall turns, ready to argue that he can only rush six children so much, but the words die in his throat when he sees that it’s Zayn.

“Sorry,” he mumbles, swallowing thickly. So he’s the new arts coordinator, which means Niall will be seeing him at least four times a week, since on both A and C days his cabin has arts and crafts. “You’re new, right?”

“I’m Zayn, actually,” the boy says, a smile on his face. Niall laughs, because yeah. He knew that already. “Are you new?”

“I’m Niall.”

“Niall,” Zayn repeats, nodding carefully, like he likes the way Niall’s name tastes on his tongue. Niall hopes he likes the tastes of other things on his tongue, namely Niall things. “So this is your cabin?”

“Yeah, um. I can’t really say how they’re going to behave, but from what I’ve seen so far, Oscar and Marcus might give you a hard time,” he says, pointing out the pair. “Mason will be the easiest. He’s been—well, he’s been hanging around me a lot.”

“Noted,” Zayn says easily, staring out at the kids before he looks back at Niall. “Anything else?”

Yeah, Niall thinks, you’re really cute. Outwardly he says, “Nope, think that should be it. After this they have—I can’t remember, but it’s out on the field with Perrie, so just point them in that direction and they’ll find it. Amaury is a regular, he knows where to take them.”

Zayn nods, offering Niall one last smile before he turns towards the group of boys, introducing himself to them. Niall stays for a just a moment, getting one last glimpse of Zayn before he leaves, placing a hand over his pounding heart.

>>>>

Niall finds Harry at the edge of the lake; both of them free this morning from their responsibilities. Harry’s leaning back against a tree, grinning at Niall as he approaches.

“Bet you wish you were still sleeping,” Niall says as a greeting, dropping down on the ground next to him.

“Honestly, whose idea was it to make us all wake up at eight?” Harry asks, shifting around so that he’s facing Niall, fingers clenched in the grass. “One of my kids was awake at seven.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I told him to go back to sleep. I don’t think he listened.”

“No, probably not.” They never do, Niall thinks, sighing. He’s glad that he’s not like Harry, the designated counselor for the six year olds. Unlike Niall’s group, they go to sleep and wake up early. “Have you met the newbies?”

“Which ones?” Harry asks, eyes squinted in the harsh summer sunlight.

Niall shrugs. “Any of them.”

“I met Leigh-Anne, she’s got the youngest group of girls, so our cabins are together for a lot of activities. She seems nice enough, from what I’ve experienced,” Harry explains and Niall nods. “Have you seen the new guy?”

“Yeah. Zayn? He runs the arts cabin,” Niall says, leaning back and tilting his head back. He’s not sure what his eyes going to give away talking about Zayn, so he closes them and hopes that he’s not obvious.

“He’s cute.”

Niall blinks open at that, eyes fluttering as they adjust to the light so that he can stare at Harry. “Are you gonna try and pursue him or something?” Niall asks, trying for nonchalant, but there’s an edge to his voice, because there’s really no competition. Zayn would go for Harry before he ever blinked at Niall. Niall doesn’t blame him. He’d ignore himself for a shot at Harry too; he’s only human after all.

“Nah,” Harry laughs, shaking his head. “Thinking about that new girl, actually.”

“Leigh-Anne?” Niall’s not really sure which one is Leigh-Anne, if he’s being honest.

Harry shakes his head. “No, she’s got a boyfriend back home. He’s coming up in a few weeks, apparently. I’m talking about Daisy. The one with the shorter hair.”

Right. Okay. Now Niall has a face to put to the name. He’s not sure when he’s going to properly meet them, but at least he knows who people are talking about when they mention them.

“She’s cute.”

“Yeah. I’m trying to get Nick to introduce her to me. They know each other from home, real good friends, apparently,” Harry says and Niall settles back, ready to listen to Harry’s plan to convince Nick that he should put a good word in for him.

>>>>

Niall’s cabin is ecstatic to find out that they get to spend an hour before dinner in the lake. Niall almost has trouble getting them changed into their swimming gear before they helped each other with the suntan lotion. There’s another cabin running towards the lake, screaming in excitement. Niall watches them throw their towels on the sand before continuing their run into the water.

Laughing, Niall watches them, until the sound dies in his throat when he sees Zayn walking down the dock towards him. He’s wearing a loose pair of blue athletic shorts and nothing else. His skin is glorious, tanned and smooth, inked all over. Niall rubs at his chin, checking to make sure he’s not drooling when Zayn sits down next to him.

“You not a fan of swimming?” Zayn asks; chin resting on his shoulder as he looks at Niall, studying him carefully.

“I am, but I didn’t really feel like it. I’ve got all summer.”

Zayn laughs, nodding, like he understands. “You tell that to them?” He asks pointing towards the kids and now it’s Niall’s turn to laugh, because yeah, he most definitely did, but to someone their age…well, all summer doesn't mean a whole lot when you’re itching to go the second your eyes land on the body of water.

“I tried, yeah. They’re excited.”

“Yeah, most of my cabin has never been to camp before.”

“Same as mine,” Niall says. “Except one, he was here last year.”

“Yeah? What about you?”

“What about me?”

“Are you new to camp?” Zayn asks. Oh right. Duh.

Niall shakes his head, turning to look at the kids in the water, checking to make sure that none of them are breaking lake rules. “No, this is my third summer. Hey, Ryan, Marcus, no roughhousing in the water.”

Marcus groans while Ryan rolls his eyes, glaring at Niall before he swims off.

“I’m surprised it’s just them,” Zayn says, tearing Niall’s attention away from the two kids, who he was absolutely not having a staring match with. That’s immature and definitely not like Niall at all. No, he was simply checking to make sure that they weren’t going to start wrestling in the water again.

“As the summer goes on they’ll stop caring about the rules, and so will you.”

Zayn shakes his head, stretching his legs out in the water. “Not in the lake I won’t. Maybe in the arts cabin, but definitely not out here.”

Niall raises an eyebrow, unsure of why Zayn’s so adamant about it, but Niall remembers being new and not wanting anything to happen to the kids. Their safety a counselor’s number one priority, but after a certain point you kind of realize that there’s only so much that you can do.

“I can’t swim,” Zayn says finally, squinting at Niall as the sun sneaks out from behind a tree. “That’s why my cabin is here with yours, they adjusted the schedules so their swimming time would always be with someone who could.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“I can’t ride the horses,” Niall says, biting on his lip when Zayn looks at him with a hint of a smile on his face. “I mean, I could, if I wanted to. I just don’t want to. I’m not really comfortable with that much power between my legs.”

Zayn snorts at that and Niall curses, feeling as his skin blushes a deep shade of red. He has to look away, too embarrassed with his horrible choice of words to look at Zayn any longer. The boys from both their cabins are behaving, splashing around and trying to do handstands, which… How dare they, honestly. He could use someone to tell off beside himself.

“Your shoulders are turning red,” Zayn says, obviously unbothered by Niall’s comment. Or maybe he can tell that Niall’s embarrassed and this is his not-so-subtle way of letting Niall know that he’s onto him.

Niall turns back to look at Zayn, shrugging his shoulders, and hopes that his face isn’t as red as the rest of him. “Yeah, it happens.”

Zayn doesn't look pleased with this revelation, as he pulls his legs out of the water to fold them under his body. He pulls a tube of sunscreen out of his pocket and motions for Niall to turn. “Let me lotion you up,” Zayn says, already squeezing a generous amount in the palm of his hand.

Niall thinks he might be choking, honest to god choking on a giant mouthful of oxygen that’s trapped in his throat as he turns his body, angling it so Zayn has better access to his bare back. “Okay, um. Sure,” Niall stutters, clearing his throat. And when warm hands press against his skin, Niall blames the shiver on the lotion.

>>>>

There’s a sound against the door of Niall’s cabin, one that sounds like a dog wanting into its owner’s bedroom. Mason gasps in the bed next to Niall, flicking on his flashlight and staring at Niall in horror.

“What is that?” He asks and Niall’s not really sure. They’re sleeping in the woods, so it could be anything, really. “Are we going to die?”

“No, no one’s going to die,” Niall mumbles, rolling his eyes as he throws the blankets off his body. “It’s probably just the wind.”

“I don’t think so,” a voice says from further down the cabin. Oscar, Niall thinks. “My window is open and I don’t feel anything.”

“It’s probably a bear,” Marcus says, clicking on his flashlight and shining it towards the door. “How are we going to scare it off?”

“It’s not a bear,” Henry tells him, sounding thoroughly put off. “It’s probably a raccoon or something.”

Niall lets them argue as he approaches the door, far less scared than the rest of them. It’s not a bear or a raccoon, definitely something worse, in Niall’s opinion.

“Hiya, Nialler,” Louis greets, leaning against the doorframe, his flashlight held against his chin. “We’ve come to do some inter-cabin bonding.”

Niall pulls the door open wider, watching as Louis’ kids rush inside. Louis grins at him, striding across the cabin confidently, reminding his kids to behave before he drops down on Niall’s bed.

It’s not a big deal that they’re here; besides the scare he gave the campers. Paul’s pretty cool with most things, as long as no one gets hurt. He’s also not an idiot, he’s under no assumption that a bunch of kids watching kids are going to follow the rules properly, at least not when one of them is Louis. They’ve gotten caught doing this before and nothing happened, just Paul giving them a look to let them know that if something happens to one of the kids that he’s going to personally take care of the counselor in charge of them.

It’s all empty threats, really, at least in Louis’ opinion; Niall’s not sure how he feels about it. Paul could probably snap him in half with his bare hands.

“Are we going to get in trouble?” Someone asks and Niall sees that it’s Mason, staring at the new kids in the cabin with fear in his eyes.

“You’re not going to get in trouble,” Niall assures him, sitting down next to Louis. “I promise. And even if we were to get in trouble, it would be me and Louis, not any of you.”

Mason doesn’t look convinced, sighing as he watches one of Louis’ kids run across the cabin, arms spread wide like he’s a bird.

“You like Ironman?” Louis asks, pointing towards Mason’s blanket. Mason nods. “He’s one of my favorites, too. I’m a huge fan of The Hulk, as well, even though he’s a bit misunderstood.”

“Well, he can be really mean sometimes,” Mason reasons. “But people aren’t really nice to him, so it’s hard. But he’s better with The Avengers.”

“Exactly, everyone is better when they have a team with them. A group of friends, you could say,” Louis explains, leaning back. “It’s kind of like here at camp. Sometimes kids have rough times, because they don’t know anyone, so stuff like this, sneaking into cabins at night, it can help them make friends.”

Niall looks at him, an eyebrow raised because honestly, where does he come up with this stuff? But Mason seems to consider it, nodding thoughtfully before he shrugs.

“I guess you’re right,” Mason says, finally throwing his blanket off his body so he can go join a group of boys a few beds down.

“You’re going to set a bad example,” Niall whispers, shaking his head. “I mean, that was a good excuse for why you’re doing this, but you’re going to get him sneaking out on his own if you’re not careful.”

Louis scoffs, kicking his slippers off as he leans back, resting against Niall’s pillow. “Please,” he mumbles, shining his flashlight in Niall’s eyes. “These kids need some fun in their life. Going to bed at nine-thirty is not fun. I’m giving them memories.”

Niall just shakes his head, leaning back to lie next to Louis.

>>>>

Niall meets Leigh-Anne when she brings her group into the kitchen to work with him. She’s just as pretty up close, with a bright smile and an air around her that oozes happiness. She’s nice, giving Niall the details of her campers before she leaves, offering him a wave.

Leigh-Anne’s cabin is the one filled with six-year old girls, all of them staring at Niall with uncertainty, eyes wide in curiosity.

“What’s your name?” One of them asks, a little girl with red ringlets pulled into pigtails, looking at him expectantly.

“I’m Niall,” he tells them and the girls nod before they introduce themselves. It’s going to take him a while to remember their names; the first couple classes spent shouting out hair color and shirt designs while the kids wait impatiently for him to catch up. “It’s nice to meet you all,” he says, fingers tapping against the metal surface of the counter. “Today we’re going to do something really easy.”

“Like what?” Blue shirt asks, trying to sit up straighter to get a better look.

“Well, salads, actually.” The girl makes a face, looking entirely put off. “It’s just for today. I need to figure out how you girls will behave in the kitchen and if you can follow rules, then we can do the fun things.”

“I hate salads,” one of them says, arms folded over her chest.

Niall wants to say that he does too but he doesn’t. “That’s okay; you don’t have to eat it. We’re going to make this so it can be served at lunch, for the rest of the camp to eat.”

“Really?” asks yellow and white stripes, grinning excitedly.

“Yeah, and next I think we’ll try a dessert, so if you work really hard today and show me that you guys can follow rules, then I can plan some fun recipes for you,” Niall says, watching as all the girls nod.

He divides them into groups of two, walking them towards the far corner of the kitchen where smaller tables are, ones that the kids can use without having to sit in a chair. He gives them everything they need, along with a sheet of paper with steps on what they need to do, before he helps walk them through it, his own supplies at his own table.

They’re following along well enough, with minimal questions. It’s easy enough, though, shredding leaves from different greens and chopping vegetables with Niall’s help. The girls are mostly excited to make their own dressings, enjoying being able to mix things rather than throw a bunch of vegetables together.

Niall’s hunched over one of the tables, helping yellow and white stripes cut grapes in half when the kitchen door opens. He glances up and nearly slices his own finger off when he sees that Zayn has joined them. He stands in the back, grabbing a stool and sitting on it, watching intently as Niall helps the kids.

It’s not unheard of; another counselor dropping in while you’re working with a group of kids, but that doesn’t mean Niall was expecting Zayn to seek him out. He’s cautious now, moving carefully and trying his best to focus on the girls and not on Zayn, even though he can feel eyes on his back.

>>>>

At lunch, Niall sits at a table filled with some of the other counselors, choosing to sit with them instead of with his cabin. It’s why lunch is one of Niall’s favorites, not only because he gets to sit with people his own age, but also because the kids get to group together as well, forming friendships they might not have been able to make before. Niall scans the crowd for his own kids, checking to make sure they’re all present and accounted for before he takes his seat.

The salad the girls made is actually really good, Niall thinks, trying that out. He sees one of them staring at him, biting their lip as they watch him chew. Niall shoots her a thumbs up, silently letting her know that it’s fantastic. She breathes out, smiling back at him before she goes back to eating.

“My girls are quite fond of you,” a voice says and Niall turns to see Leigh-Anne taking the seat to his right, smiling at him. “They were positively raving about you.”

“They were fun,” Niall says, taking another bite. “They weren’t very happy about making salad, though.”

Leigh-Anne shrugs, readying to say something until Perrie grabs her hand, drawing her away from the conversation. Niall’s not really worried about it, happy to settle into his lunch and enjoy a meal as everyone else talks around him.

Across from him Louis and Nick are arguing about something, Niall’s not really sure what, and judging by some of the things they’re saying he’s not really sure that they even know. Harry’s shaking his head on Nick’s left, trying to pull his friend’s attention back to him until Daisy sits down next to him, stealing Harry’s focus.

“My cabin loves your salad.” Niall turns, watching as Zayn moves to occupy the chair next to Niall. “Well, most of them. A couple said they had no intentions of eating it.”

“It’s not really my salad,” Niall says dumbly. Zayn shrugs. “I just mean the girls made it, some of it. I did make most of it, actually.”

Zayn laughs because he knows; he hung out in the kitchen until ten minutes before the lesson was over. He watched Niall make most of the food. 

“Our cabins have swimming with Louis tomorrow,” Zayn tells him finally, after a long stretch of silence where the two of them listen to Nick and Louis argue whether or not radio is a job for ugly people. Niall knows it’s mostly an argument designed to wedge Louis under Nick’s skin, judging by the smug little grin on Louis’ face every time Nick’s cheeks turn red and his eyes narrow.

“What?”

“Tomorrow. Our cabin’s have pool access with Louis.”

Right. Niall remembers seeing that, he thinks. Actually he didn’t. Niall only knows the schedule as it happens, not days in advance. Memorization is for newbies, like Zayn. Niall frowns at the mental insult, forcing himself to not verbally apologize to Zayn.

“We could use that time to teach you how to swim,” Niall teases, relishing in the way Zayn grins, mouth pulled open and eyes wrinkled shut. “Or whatever.”

“I hope you don’t mind,” Zayn says after a beat. “I kind of requested that my cabin always get to swim with yours, lake and in the pool,” he admits, shrugging. “I thought it would help them make friends.”

“I don’t care.” Zayn nods, relaxing a bit at Niall’s words. “I don’t think my boys care either, as long as they’re in the water somehow. Think they gave me a cabin of fish, honestly.”

“Yeah, mines pretty divided. Most want to swim and the rest want to go on hikes, go exploring and what not.”

“I think there’s a camp hike coming up, actually. At some point. Liam’s organized it,” Niall says, pointing towards Liam. “He’s always in charge of that stuff. Your campers will love it, I think. Last year we turned it into a scavenger hunt.”

“That’ll be fun,” Zayn says, smiling.

“Yeah,” Niall agrees. There’s a nagging thought in the back of his mind telling him that this is when the conversation dies down and they both settle into their meals. But Niall doesn’t want that. He wants to eat and he can, when it’s Zayn’s turn to talk.

If the conversation doesn’t continue, Niall knows that he’s going to think about it for days. Well, at least until tomorrow when they’re together again.

“How are your campers?” asks Niall, watching as Zayn chews his food, jaw jutting out from the movement.

“Good, so far. I had a couple I was worried about, they both cried when their parents left,” Zayn says and Niall nods, yeah, he was worried about Mason. “I don’t know, I kind of get it, you know, missing home.”

“Already?”

Zayn shrugs unapologetically. “My first time away from home,” he admits with a blush that make Niall’s knees feel weak. “But there are perks, I think.”

“Yeah, I love it here,” Niall says. “It’s kind of nice getting paid to do stuff like this, like watch kids swim in the lake, while you either swim with them, or you could even read a book. I don’t know, there’s a lot to love.”

“Not really the perk I was thinking of,” Zayn says. “But yeah, sure. The lake, whatever.”

Niall stares at him, watching as Zayn winks before he goes back to his food. He’s not really sure what kind of perk Zayn is thinking about, if not for the freedom of the job. He wants to ask but he’s not sure what to say, not when Louis has effectively cut off their conversation, pulling the two of them into his own.

“Can you please tell Nicholas that I’m right,” Louis sighs, sounding exasperated.

“About what?” Zayn asks and that’s pretty much the end of it, Niall no longer has monopoly on Zayn’s attention, meaning he can’t ask him what he meant.

>>>>

Zayn’s already at the pool when Niall’s cabin arrives, lathering up one of his kids with sunscreen while the rest of them gather around Louis, getting ready to listen to the rules. Niall tells his kids where to go, watching as they drop their towels before joining Zayn’s group.

“Jeans and a beanie,” comments Niall, taking in Zayn’s appearance. It’s far too hot outside for that. Niall thinks he might actually be melting, and here Zayn is wearing a pair of tight fitting jeans, like the world doesn’t affect him the way it does other people.

“It’s not like I plan on getting in,” Zayn tells him, one eye squinted shut from the sun.

“Louis is working with them on that today,” Niall says, motioning towards the boy who is reminding the kids once again that they’re not allowed to run around the pool unless they wish to break both of their legs when they fall. “We could sit off to the side and listen as he helps them.”

“I’m good,” Zayn says. “Not really in any rush to learn, if I’m being honest, but thanks for the offer.”

“You’ve got all summer.”

“That I have. But we’ve only got an hour now, before we have to take them back to the cabins, you want to walk around or something.”

Or something. Definitely or something, whatever that something might be. Niall doesn’t say that, of course, because he’s not going to tell Zayn that he wants to take him back to his cabin and help him out of his jeans. That would be inappropriate and only mildly – very – true.

“Sure, yeah. Whatever,” Niall says instead, brushing his hair off his forehead to try and stop it from sticking to the skin.

Zayn smiles at that, leading Niall out of the fenced off area of the pool and out onto the campsite. There are not many places for them to go right now, at least not if they don’t want to be interrupted by kids. Niall wants to offer that they go out on the lake in a canoe, but he’s not sure how Zayn would handle that. Instead he lets Zayn lead him around, following him down the path towards the lake, through the trees until they settle at a little creek.

“My cabin found this the other night,” Zayn says, sitting down on the rocks along the shore. The water is clear and moving slowly, only a few inches deep, probably only high enough to reach Niall’s knee. “It’s probably already known, but they were proud of themselves.”

“I knew there was a creek,” Niall says, trying to get comfortable on the rocks. They should have brought towels or something, so that the gravel wouldn’t be stabbing him in his bony butt. “Didn’t know it came this close to the lake, though.”

“They’re connected,” Zayn explains, pointing towards the trees. “It’s around over there, the creek pours out into the lake, I think. We could only go so far, until we stumbled across a fallen down tree that cut off our path.”

“You really couldn’t wait for that hike, could you?”

Zayn laughs, shaking his head. “No, I guess not. But I mean, how can you stay at a place like this and not want to explore it somehow?”

Niall shrugs. “I guess it’s different your first time, more exciting.”

“You’re not excited to be here?”

“No, I am. It’s just—I’ve seen everything there is to see.”

“Not everything.”

“Most everything.”

“Hardly,” Zayn argues, rolling his eyes at Niall. “You’re sleeping in the woods, there’s no way you’ve checked out this entire area. And nature’s constantly changing, that doesn’t change despite the camp staying the same.”

Niall nods, fighting back a smile because Zayn looks so serious and so outraged that Niall would try and argue that he knows everything there is to know about the camp. Obviously he doesn’t know everything, but most things.

“Next time we get an hour like this I’ll take you out in the woods,” Zayn says decidedly, nodding thoughtfully as he stares at the water in front of them. “We’ll follow the creek.”

“Well, next time we get an hour like this I hope you’ll wear less clothes,” Niall mumbles and Zayn turns to look at him, eyes wide for a moment before a slow grin spreads across his face. That’s not—Niall hadn’t—Well, not like that. “I meant shorts and stuff, not jeans. That’s all.”

Zayn nods, not looking convinced at all and Niall can feel the blush spread, working from his cheeks and down his neck, disappearing under his shirt.

“I’ll try and remember not to wear so much,” Zayn teases, gently elbowing Niall as he turns back to look at the water. “But only if you promise to shed a few things as well.”

And that…well, that sounds a bit like a proposition.

>>>>

“Do you ever get tired of spending all your time here?” Niall asks, pulling his shirt off, watching as Louis shrugs.

“You ever get tired of being in the kitchens?”

“When it’s hot,” Niall admits because there are days when he wants nothing more than to tell the kids that cooking is cancelled and they’re going to spend their time together in the lake, cooling off.

“That’s why I don’t get tired of it,” Louis says, stepping into the pool. “I can choose to sit out of the pool and just watch them, make sure no one drowns, or I can get in the water and pretend I’m not frying.”

“You make a good point,” Niall mumbles, toeing off his shoes and walking towards the water. Louis, unhelpfully, splashes him, using his forearm to send a spray of water crashing over Niall’s body. “Holy shit.”

“Nice and cold,” Louis says, smirking as he floats on his back, waiting.

It takes Niall a couple minutes, having to work his way into the pool slowly, letting his thighs and stomach and chest accommodate before he submerges himself completely. Coming up he wipes the water out of his eyes and then sighs, like he can almost feel his body temperature dropping. If this were a cartoon steam would be rolling off him, the heat leaving him quickly.

Louis and Niall are relaxed, content with the silence as they float across the pool, staring up at the blue of the sky above. There’s a voice, Niall can’t make out whom it is, the water in his ears making it difficult, but he can make out Louis' harsh tones.

Niall stands, blinking as his eyes adjust to reveal Nick, leaning against the fence.

“Don’t you have somewhere to be?” Louis asks, practically snarling.

“Told Daisy I’d help her over at the stables, so yeah, I guess,” Nick replies, smirking.

“I hope you fall in horse shit.”

Niall snorts. It’s such an awful comeback; they’re like children, pulling at each other’s pigtails on the playground.

“You’d only be so lucky, darling,” Nick drawls out, offering them a salute before he’s gone. Niall waves back to him, ignoring the glare Louis gives him. He’s not sure why Nick stopped by, if for nothing more than to rattle Louis’ nerves, but he hadn’t said anything awful to Niall, so why is going to be rude to him?

“He’s the most annoying person I’ve ever had the misfortune to meet in my life,” Louis groans, resting his arms on the side of the pool, staring at where Nick’s figure once was. “Honestly, he comes over here and just—I don’t know who he thinks he is.”

“You two ever just gonna fuck it out?” Niall asks, ceasing Louis’ angry mumbling so the other boy can glare at him.

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me,” Niall says, swimming next to him. “I bet you’d both feel better.”

Louis snorts. “We’ve tried that.”

“What?” Niall shouts. “When?”

Louis sighs, turning away from Niall to stare back at the fence. It takes him a minute, mulling over the information in his head before he speaks again. “After last summer, like… I don’t know.”

“You don’t have to tell me, man, it’s cool.”

“No, it’s fine. We kept in touch and stuff, same with everyone else, right? But like, we met up a few times and—well, more than a few. He spent New Years at my place, so like… I guess it was serious.”

“And then what happened?”

“He stopped returning my calls,” Louis says, turning back to look at Niall, shrugging.

“Wow, I didn’t think—Well, I didn’t know. Shit. I won’t wave at him anymore.”

Louis laughs, clapping his hand on Niall’s back as he shakes his head. “That’s why you don’t have summer romances. It doesn’t work out in the end.”

“Okay,” Niall mumbles, brows pulled together as Louis laughs at him, pushing away from the side of the pool to float on his back once more.

“Don’t play dumb with me, Niall.”

“I’m not playing anything,” Niall protests, turning around so that he can look at his friend. “I’ve genuinely no idea what you’re talking about, but okay.”

“Whatever you say, Niall. Whatever you say,” Louis mutters, sighing.

Niall doesn’t get a chance to ask what that means because the gate behind them is creaking open, revealing Harry, wearing a pair of bright yellow shorts. Niall gets a flash of them before Harry dives in the pool.

“I’m in love,” is the first thing Harry says when he surfaces. “I’m absolutely in love.”

Niall snorts. “Louis, it sounds like you gave your words of wisdom to the wrong person.”

“Yeah, we’ll see about that,” Louis says to him, turning to look at Harry. “What makes you think you’re in love, Styles?”

“Everything. All things, even this swimming pool.”

Niall rolls his eyes, shifting around to float on his back again. The water in his ears stops him from hearing Harry’s speech, but he knows it won’t be the only time Harry tells it, so he’s not worried.

>>>>

Niall’s cabin is one of the last to arrive at the campfire, thanks to the fight between Oscar and Marcus that resulted in his entire cabin arguing. Niall wasn’t able to get them to stop, not until he told everyone that the longer they fought the less likely they were to get to go to the bonfire. Half the cabin was scandalized, their mouths snapping shut instantly while the rest grumbled under their breath, glaring at each other until the only sounds left were that of the laughter at the bonfire, reminding them what they were missing.

“Look who’s finally here,” Louis calls out, vacating the space between Harry and Liam. “You sit there.”

“Thanks,” Niall says, dropping down on the ground. He breathes out, running his fingers through his hair.

“Everything good?” Liam asks from his right and Niall nods and offers him a smile to prove it.

“Just had to deal with them fighting, nothing too bad,” Niall tells him, watching as Liam nods. Last year Liam had to deal with the drama in his cabin, two kids absolutely hating each other until finally they separated them, putting them in separate cabins. “But how’ve you been? Haven’t really had the chance to talk to you.”

“Yeah, good. Nothing to complain about.”

“Yeah, I understand that. How’s Sophia? You two still together?”

Liam nods. “She’s coming out here next weekend, meeting me in town when we get the day off.”

“Shit,” Niall mutters, forgetting completely that the camp allows them days off. “That’s already happening?”

“Yeah, and we get more this year.”

“I don’t think you’ve ever delivered anyone such good news before in your life, Payne,” Niall tells him, nodding; grabbing the stick next to Liam so he can make a s’more. He’s starving.

“Actually,” Harry says, leaning against Niall. “If Liam wants to give a man good news then he should let me know that he’d be willing to watch my cabin for me.”

“Why do you need someone to watch your cabin?” Niall asks and Louis snorts, rolling his eyes.

“Just watch them for me,” Harry says, standing up, brushing the dirt off his shorts. “I’m going to see Daisy for a minute.”

“How are we supposed to know which campers are yours?” Louis shouts after him, sighing. “Well, I guess one of us should be getting laid.”

Niall snorts, eating his burnt marshmallow off the stick. He’ll make something proper later. “You could be getting laid, if you’d just take my advice.”

“Speaking of getting laid,” Liam mutters, looking past Niall. Niall turns and sees that it’s Zayn and he frowns. He hadn’t even realized the other boy was gone. Who could he have been having sex with? How could he possible be having sex? Niall’s been here the whole time. And okay—like, Niall knows he doesn’t have a monopoly on Zayn’s sex life, but he doesn’t want to know that Zayn’s out doing things while he’s chewing on a charred sugary puff.

“Well, well, well, and just who were you with, Malik?” Louis asks as Zayn sits down next to Niall.

“One of my campers cut his leg on the way down here, I had to get him cleaned up,” Zayn explains, running his fingers through his hair. “He wanted to call his mom, was proper wailing about it, thought he was gonna die or something.”

“Right,” Louis mumbles, not looking convinced and Niall wants him to drop it.

“What?” Zayn asks, looking at Louis, then Liam and finally Niall. Niall shrugs, sighing when he realizes he ate the last marshmallow.

“Liam said you were out having sex,” Louis says primly, while Liam rolls his eyes.

“I just assumed. Usually if a counselor is missing it’s because they’re hooking up with another counselor.”

“Isn’t that against the rules?”

“Like that stops anyone,” Louis mutters, stretching his arms above his head.

“Good to know,” Zayn mumbles and Louis grins, his eyes lighting up in interest.

Whatever. Niall doesn’t want to listen to this.

“I’m going to the kitchens to grab some more marshmallows, they never bring enough out,” Niall mumbles, standing. “Be back in a minute.”

“I’ll come with you,” Zayn says and Niall sighs. He was hoping to get away from him. But it’s fine, at least now he knows that Louis and Zayn can’t talk about sex and whom Zayn is or isn’t doing anything with.

Zayn walks silently next to Niall, following him on the familiar path towards the dining hall. Niall has to use his key to unlock the doors, flicking on the lights as they enter.

“Louis, is he, like—“

“Completely out of his mind,” Niall mumbles, shuffling through the cabins to find what he’s looking for. “But he means well, just nosey. He likes to know as much as he can about the people he’s surrounding himself with, so yeah. I expect he’ll want to know your family’s health history next.” He’s teasing, of course he is. And Zayn knows it, judging from the smile on his face when Niall turns around, bag of marshmallows in his hands.

“But it was nice to know that.”

“To know what?” Niall asks.

“That people break the rules, I guess.”

“Some people say that rules are made to be broken,” Niall comments. It’s such a dumb saying, Niall thinks, shaking his head. “I think Louis might be the only person to think that, though.”

“You wouldn’t break the rules?” Zayn asks, taking a step closer.

Niall shrugs. “I guess it depends on the rules,” Niall says and Zayn takes another step. “I mean, if it’s a silly one, like the one about how we’re not allowed to take food from the kitchens. Obviously I don’t listen to that one.”

Zayn nods, one step closer to Niall. “And the one about not being allowed to have relations with another counselor?” Niall blinks, wetting his lips as Zayn stops in front of him. “What’s your stance on that one?”

Niall’s not really sure what answer Zayn was waiting for, because Niall doesn’t get a chance to reply vocally, not when Zayn’s kissing him. It startles Niall, his mouth falling open, and Zayn takes that as invitation enough to slip his tongue into Niall’s mouth, tasting the sugary sweetness of the marshmallow Niall ate minutes ago. It’s almost too much for Niall, the surprise of it, but god, Niall wants it.

They kiss until Niall can’t breathe and he pulls away with a whine, already cursing his body for needing something as lame as oxygen. He could have survived on that kiss alone, the happy curl of his gut, and the light feeling in his veins, making him feel like he could float away.

“Guess that answers that,” Zayn chuckles, thumb stroking against Niall’s jaw.

Niall grins back at him, taking in a lungful of air before he surges forward, kissing Zayn once more.

>>>>

Niall’s cabin looks absolutely devastated that he’s going to be gone for a day. They’re all standing around his bed, watching as he packs an overnight bag with the saddest faces that Niall’s ever seen. He almost wants to laugh because honestly, there is so much happening at camp that they shouldn’t even be worried about Niall going out. He shouldn’t be one of their worries.

“You’ll be fine,” Niall tells them for the third time. They all sigh in unison, like they don’t believe him. “You won’t even notice I’m gone. You’ll sleep, and then you’ll have all your fun activities. I’ll be a distant memory come morning, promise.”

“Who’s gonna be here while you’re gone?” Henry asks, sitting at the edge of Niall’s bed. “Because I’m not sleeping in the same cabin as Louis. Jack said they do pranks in their cabin, I don’t like that stuff.”

Niall tries not to laugh at that, covering the sound as a cough. “Nick’s going to be here tonight,” Niall says, motioning towards the door. “You guys have worked with him before when you do archery, so don’t worry.”

The kids all sigh again, before they begin to filter off, wishing Niall a good day away from camp as they walk back to their beds. Mason stays by his side for a minute, looking at Nick then at Niall.

“Will you be back tomorrow night?” Mason asks finally, quiet so no one else can hear.

“Yeah, and we’ll tell ghost stories or something,” Niall tells him, ruffling his hair as he tosses his bag over his shoulder. “Get some sleep, buddy.”

“See ya, Niall,” Mason mutters, crawling into bed. It makes Niall feel better to know that he’ll be missed, that his campers like him enough to be sad that he’s going away. Unlike Louis’ cabin, who are probably grateful for a night of sleep without something happening to them.

“Have fun,” Nick says, as Niall passes and Niall waves him off, remembering his promise to Louis that he won’t even utter a hello in Nick Grimshaw’s direction.

>>>>

The town outside of camp is small, quaint, like you stepped out of an old western film. It’s the old kind of town you drive through, never really stopping. Niall loves it, loves the old town feeling and how friendly everyone is, smiling at them as they walk down the street towards the local ice cream shop.

It’s all of the counselors, sans a few that will get next week off. Liam has already left with Sophia, the two of them getting dinner at the small family owned restaurant down the street. Louis had joked about crashing their night together, before winking and leading everyone else down the block, saying goodbye to the happy couple, along with Leigh-Anne and her boyfriend. Niall’s walking towards the back, Zayn and Caroline in front of him, with Daisy and Harry, then Lou and Louis.

When they get to the ice cream shop Niall orders Rocky Road in a large bowl, paying for it before he joins everyone else outside.

“They want to put on a play,” Caroline is saying, looking at Zayn thoughtfully, like she’s considering it. “I can talk to Paul about it, see what he thinks.”

“Yeah, that’d be great,” Zayn says, smiling as he takes a bite of his mint ice cream. “I promised I’d ask.”

“You asked and now we’re not going to talk about work for the rest of the weekend, not until we’re back at camp,” Louis says, stretching his legs out and nudging Niall in the ankle. “Are you coming out with me tonight?”

“Where?” Niall asks, words jumbled from the food in his mouth.

“The bar over there,” Louis says, motioning towards the only bit of town open during the night. Niall looks at it, sighing. He had thought he’d be in the mood for it tonight, but right now he kind of just wants to go back to the motel and watch a bunch of crap television and sleep in tomorrow.

Niall shakes his head. “I don’t think so.”

“Oh god, you’re so boring,” Louis mutters, sounding annoyed. “We always go on our days off, you can’t just break tradition.”

“It’s hardly a tradition.”

“It hardly is not because it is,” Louis says, not making any sense. “What about you, Harry? Are you going to join me for the night?”

Harry bites down on his lip, looking at Daisy before he turns back to Louis. “Um, we were gonna just…you know, stay in the motel for the night.”

“Well,” Louis mumbles, glaring at his ice cream cone. “I guess you find out who your real friends are when a pretty girl joins camp.”

Daisy grins at him. “We’ll come next time.”

“If you’re invited,” Louis retorts snottilyand Niall rolls his eyes, taking another bite of his ice cream. “What about you, Zayn, are you a traitor like the rest of them?”

Zayn nods, like he’s not ashamed. “Kind of just want to sleep, if I’m being honest. I’m not really used to waking up as early as they make us, so it’d be nice to just lie in bed.”

“You’re all disgusting, awful, horrible people.”

“And you’re overdramatic,” Niall tells him.

Louis ignores him completely, turning to Lou and Caroline. “What about you babes, care to join a man?”

“Was wondering if you were ever gonna ask us,” Lou mutters, stabbing her spoon into her pink frozen treat. “I’d love to go out, actually.”

Louis grins. “And you, darling?”

Caroline rolls her eyes. “Yeah, alright. I’m rooming with Lou so might as well.”

Niall frowns at that, because they hadn’t really talked about sleeping arrangements, not yet at least. He knew that everyone was going to let Liam have a room with Sophia, same with Leigh-Anne and her boyfriend, which meant that somewhere people were going to have to sleep three to a room, since the camp only rents them five rooms. Niall does the math in his head, Liam and Sophia in one, Caroline and Louise in another, Leigh-Anne and her boyfriend in another. That’s three rooms already, and if Niall is to assume that Harry and Daisy are taking a room together, that means Niall, Louis, and Zayn have to share.

“Well, since you two aren’t party poopers, I’m going to sleep with you. We can take the party back to the motel,” Louis says, winking at the two girls who roll their eyes in unison, choosing not to comment in any other way.

And that means it’s Zayn and Niall sharing a room. Niall almost sweats at the thought, the two of them alone in a room together. God, Niall almost can’t believe his luck.

They finish their ice cream and then everyone is going their separate ways, Harry and Daisy having left a while ago, leaving the five of them alone to eat. Niall watches Louis leaving with Lou and Caroline, an arm around both of the girls’ shoulders as they walk towards the bar, leaving Zayn and Niall alone.

“Do you remember how to get back to the motel?” Zayn asks, hands in his pockets as he looks at Niall. “I know it’s that way, but we took some turns and I can’t…”

“Yeah, I know,” Niall says, motioning for Zayn to follow him.

“So um, how often do we get these days off?” Zayn asks. “Because I always thought summer camp was one of those jobs where you didn’t get time off, just had to suck it up.”

“I guess at some, maybe,” Niall shrugs, he’s not sure, “but here you get a day off every so many weeks, just to keep the counselors from snapping. You usually leave before dinner, and then come back the next day right before lights out. We left later than usual tonight.”

“Huh, my cabin made it seem like that this has never happened before. Some of them were freaking out.”

“Yeah, they get used to you, so it’s weird for them when someone else sleeps in the cabin,” Niall says, remembering the look on Mason’s face as he looked at Nick, like the man was the cause of the world ending. “They’ll be alright, wake up tomorrow and forget who we are.”

“Probably,” Zayn laughs, falling in step with Zayn. “So uh, do you wanna share a room? I’m not sure what everyone else is doing, but we never really discussed it.”

Niall nods, trying to keep his cool, because it’s bad enough that they’re defaulted to share a room, but Zayn wanting to know if they can be together, because it’s what he wants... Well, Niall’s not sure he has enough in him to act like he’s not thrilled with the idea so he doesn’t say anything, just keeps walking. He can hear Zayn sigh from next to him, but Niall doesn't think anything of it.

>>>>

Apparently Niall should have thought something about Zayn’s sigh, because when they get to the room something seems off. Zayn doesn’t say anything as they pull their bags out of one of the camp’s trucks, just follows Zayn up to their room on the second floor, tucked away in the far corner. He follows Zayn in, tossing his bag on the bed closest to the door and air conditioning, right before he turns the air on as low as it can go, creating a chill in the air.

It takes Niall a while to realize that something’s wrong, or that something could be wrong. Zayn doesn’t really talk to him, just sits on his bed, contemplative, sometimes sparing a glance in Niall’s direction, like he’s curious about something. And while Zayn seems comfortable in this kind of silence, Niall isn’t, so he spends a lot of the time sighing, shifting around on his bed and hoping that Zayn will show him some mercy and start some kind of conversation.

This really isn’t how Niall imagined he’d spend his night in a motel room alone with Zayn. He had hoped, a tiny part of him, that they’d make use of the bed somehow.

However, realistically, Niall knows that a simple conversation, maybe even a card game would be nice, if that’s what Zayn wants to do.

“Can I ask you something?” Zayn asks. Finally, Niall thinks, muting the television and sitting up on his bed, nodding in Zayn’s direction. “I’ve been trying to figure something out, and well, I was wondering, are we okay?”

“What do you mean?” Niall asks, confused, because why wouldn’t they be?”

“It’s just—well, I mean. You’ve been kind of weird since I kissed you.”

Huh, Niall thinks. He doesn’t think that he’s been weird, not really. It’s sparked some feelings, some knots in his chest that are aching to be released, but that’s not Zayn’s fault. It might be the kisses fault; he’s not sure, though.

“I don’t think I’ve been weird,” Niall says instead, careful, watching Zayn.

“Kind of,” Zayn mumbles, shifting around so that his legs are thrown over the side of the bed, so he’s sitting up and looking at Niall properly. “I don’t know. I didn’t think much of it when you chose to swim with the campers instead of sitting on the dock with me; I understood that, it was hot as hell that day. But then you didn’t say anything when you brought your kids to the arts cabin. And normally we sit together at dinner, but you’ve been sitting by Louis a lot.”

“Oh.” Niall hadn’t realized he was doing that. It wasn’t intentional, not at all. He had sat with Louis because Louis had started a conversation with him while they were grabbing food, and it’s not his fault someone took the spot next to him. And he didn’t say anything the day at the arts cabin because he had to rush off towards the kitchens for his own session. It was just a bad week, that’s all. “I wasn’t trying to be weird,” he says and Zayn nods.

“Yeah, well. I’m sorry for, you know, making you uncomfortable or whatever.”

“No. No, Zayn. No, that’s not at all what happened.”

“Kind of seemed like it was,” Zayn says.

“No. Shit, sorry,” Niall curses, running a frustrated hand through his hair. God, he’s really fucking it up with this crush thing. Zayn’s going to end up hating him by the end of summer, honestly. He’s not normally this bad at this kind of thing. “It was just a busy week; I didn’t think you’d be bothered by it. But it’s definitely not about the kiss. At all. That was—yeah, that was fine.”

Zayn looks at him for a moment, like he’s trying to see if he can believe Niall or not. Niall watches as his shoulders relax the longer Zayn looks at him, like he’s found the answer he’s looking for and Niall has just made everything better. Niall feels like he should apologize for making Zayn worry.

“So if I were to kiss you right now, that’d be cool?”

“Now?” Niall asks, shocked and confused, unsure if he heard that right.

“Well, unless you can think of a better time,” Zayn mumbles, already standing up, taking a careful step towards Niall’s bed.

Holy shit, Niall thinks, his eyes going wide. “No. No, now is good, yeah,” he mumbles, listening to the sound of Zayn laugh before he’s dropping down on the bed next to Niall, lying on his back and pulling Niall down with him, hand on Niall’s jaw.

Zayn kisses him softly, gentle, and almost hesitate to start. Niall hates it, he wants Zayn to hold him down on the bed, to put his weight on him and kiss him until his brain goes fuzzy with pleasure. And almost like he can hear Niall’s thoughts, Zayn deepens the kiss, arms snaking around Niall’s body and pulling him in, messing up his hair.

Niall can taste the ice cream they ate earlier on Zayn’s tongue, the faint traces of mint mixed in the taste of Zayn, Niall’s favorite, honestly.

They kiss until Niall’s half hard in his pajamas and Zayn’s out of his shirt, until the television switches from actual shows to hour-long commercials advertising different products. They kiss until Niall’s lips are raw and red, Zayn’s looking just the same, his eyes half closed with desire and fatigue. They kiss until their bodies’ protest, the desire to sleep taking over the desire to feel Zayn against him.

Niall falls asleep happy, sated, and eternally grateful for day’s off, with Zayn sleeping beside him.

>>>>

Niall wakes up before Zayn, blinking awake to the sound of people outside slowly bringing him into consciousness. His right arm is freezing, having slept with it outside of the blankets, and thanks to Zayn having the air turned down so low. But Zayn’s almost like a furnace, heating up everything under the blankets, so Niall settles closer to him, pressing his cold arm against Zayn’s back and slipping the other around his waist.

It’s win-win, Niall thinks, giving him an excuse to spoon the other boy while he warms up his body in the same go. He’s a proper genius, really.

Zayn doesn’t wake for another hour; at least that’s how long it takes to show he’s awake to Niall. He wakes with a whine, stretching in Niall’s arms and then rolling onto his back. Niall shifts away from him, his body finally warm and waits.

“What time is it?” Zayn asks, voice low and gravely, wiping at the corners of his mouth.

“Quarter til eleven,” Niall tells him, sitting up slowly to look at the clock on the bedside table. “Shit, I didn’t realize it was that late.”

Zayn laughs, shaking his head as he grabs his things and heads into the bathroom.

They take their time getting ready, both of them still not properly woken up when they go to find the others. Liam’s the only one awake, telling them that Leigh-Anne has gone out already, and while he’s not sure about Harry and Daisy, he knows that Louis and the girls are both sleeping, having been out late last night.

“Did they try and rope the two of you into going out?” Niall asks, sitting down at the table on the sidewalk across from them. It was pure luck that they found them, because after pressing their ears to the doors they knew were rented from the cabin, and when they didn’t hear anything, they decided to head to the donut shop for breakfast. That’s where they found Liam and Sophia.

“No, but I did hear them coming back. Louis was shouting about something,” Liam says fondly, shaking his head. “Oh Zayn, this is my girlfriend, Sophia.”

“Hi,” Zayn mumbles, smiling as he takes a bite of his donut. “Heard a lot about you.”

“Yeah, same,” Sophia says. “Liam was telling me all about the new counselors last night at dinner. He mentioned your name a time or two.”

“Sophia’s always interested in what happens at camp. She never went as a child,” Liam explains, nodding, like he’s trying to convince them that he wasn’t saying anything other than what was strictly necessary.

“Have you ever thought about getting a job at the camp? It’s a lot of fun,” Zayn tells her and Niall nods, because despite some of the surface flaws, like bugs and arguing with children about how they absolutely will shower, it’s an amazing job. “You’d get to see Liam more than once every few weeks.”

Sophia laughs at that, this pretty sound that makes Niall’s grin widen as he listens, happy to continue eating and offer absolutely nothing to the conversation. Aside from his good looks, that is.

“I don’t think that it’s the job for me, as interesting as it is,” Sophia says, shrugging. “Besides, it’s kind of nice to only see him every once in a while, makes it better when we’re together.”

Niall leans back in his seat and glances around, looking at the town around them. The three of them continue to talk, about the camp, about other things that Niall’s not interested in talking about this early in the morning. He wants to find something to do, some place to go. There’s half a day left before they need to head back to camp and Niall wants to spend it doing more than listening to them talk about work and fashion.

Niall’s ready to ask about the day’s plans when he hears a voice, a loud one at that, turning in time to see Louis and Harry walking towards them.

“Very nice of you to wake us,” Louis states as he takes his seat, dragging a chair away from another table to sit down beside Niall. “My head is absolutely killing me.”

“Take it you had a fun night out,” Niall says, grinning as he pokes Louis in the cheek.

“Lovely. The girls are far better than all of you,” Louis claims, snagging a donut from Liam. “Besides you, Sophia, I bet you’re an amazing time.”

“Our next day off you can rope us all into getting into trouble,” Harry promises, stepping out of the donut shop with more food and two cups of coffee, passing one to Louis.

“I plan on it,” Louis assures them all, holding up a donut to prove his point. “I’m going to make Paul give us the day off together again, only just us, no girls allowed.”

Niall rolls his eyes but then grins, because even if there is a no girls allowed rule, he’s one of the only people not affected by that, Zayn being the other. He’s sure they’ll find ways to make use of their time, while still respecting Louis’ new rule.

“Yeah, well, as much fun as it is to talk about next time, maybe we could do something now. I’ve got a cabin full of children waiting for me to come back to camp and I’d like to at least have stories that rival theirs, if that’s alright with you all,” Niall says, glancing around, watching as they all nod. Good. He’s glad they’re all on the same page.

“What about bowling?” Harry suggests, looking at them. Niall’s the first to nod, because yeah, that sounds perfect, actually.

>>>>

“But what are the rules?” Amaury asks, staring up at Niall with a hint of fear in his eyes. He has no reason to be afraid, Niall thinks, shaking his head.

“Well, it’s another five minutes before we can put the icing on these, so yeah. The rules. Um.” Niall scratches at his scalp, pausing when Ryan drops a bunch of metal utensils down on the countertop, sending a loud clatter reverberating off the walls. “Okay, you’re allowed to ice these however you want, as long as it is done appropriately. You can make them all green, you can make them look like ladybugs, I don’t care. It’s up to you.”

“So we can do anything?” Henry asks, looking dubious about this whole thing.

“Yes, as long as it’s appropriate.”

“What’s appropriate?” Amaury asks.

“If you think Louis would put it on a cupcake then you’re not allowed to do it,”Niall tells them and the boys all laugh, fully understanding what Niall is telling them. It’s amazing how much a group of children pick up on, like how much an adult likes to draw dicks on everything that he can.

The doors to the kitchens open to reveal Zayn, the boy smiling at Niall as he settles in the back corner, on the stool that’s there. Niall waves, offering him a quick grin before he turns back to the kids waiting for him to say go.

“Remember, we need enough for everyone in the camp. Don’t rush, there’s enough time, and I’ve divided them all evenly, so I don’t want to hear that someone else has more than you,” Niall says, trying not to glare at Oscar as he says it. “Anything you don’t finish I will, don’t freak out if you don’t, okay?”

“Can we start now?” Mason asks, already reaching for the red icing.

“Yeah, you can start.”

The boys break out in grins, all scrambling to grab the icing that they want as they get to work. They had all been over the moon with excitement when Niall told them that they were going to be making a dessert for the camp. All of them tired of having to make side dishes and boring things like pie. Kids like the creativity that things like cake and cupcake frosting allow.

Niall checks to make sure they’re all doing fine before he walks towards Zayn, the other boy meeting him halfway.

“Don’t you have any to decorate?” Zayn asks, leaning against the wall.

“I would, but they all insisted that they didn’t need my help with something like this. I’m useless,” Niall tells him, listening to the melodic sound of Zayn’s laughter.

“You’re good for a few things, I suspect.”

“Yeah, getting things on the higher shelves and working the ovens, but that’s all.”

“And telling them not to be like Louis.”

“That’s what I’m best at, actually,” Niall mutters, winking. “The last thing we need is a camp full of children vandalizing the place with phallic imagery.”

“No, that would be awful,” Zayn agrees.

The way Zayn’s looking at Niall makes his stomach clench up, just the way that—actually, everything about Zayn makes his stomach clench up, makes it twist in delight. Like the way the sun shining in from the windows flickers in his eyes, lighting up in a way that makes them sparkle. Or the way the sun reflects off his hair, Niall wonders if it’s warm. If the dark color of it has absorbed any of the sun’s warmth. Maybe that’s why Zayn loves being cold so much, if Niall were to guess.

It’s almost ridiculous, knowing someone for such a short amount of time, but having them fill your belly with warmth and make your skin tingle at just the sight of them.

Niall’s worried about how gone he might be, because he is. He’s absolutely gone for Zayn. Head over heels. Ass over tit. Whatever. He’s all of it. All of his limbs are over each other with feelings for Zayn. It’s awful, in the best way possible.

“Are you doing anything after this?” Zayn asks and Niall shakes his head, worried that he might have made Zayn uncomfortable with all his staring.

“I’m free, unlike our cabins, why?”

“So you have a free hour?”

“Yeah, once I clean up the mess that they made.”

Zayn nods, wetting his lips in the most delicious way. Niall’s knees almost buckle at the sight because how can Zayn just casually lick his lips? How could he be so insensitive of the twisting and tingling that he causes Niall?

“Meet me at my cabin after then, yeah?”

“Okay,” Niall agrees easy enough, watching as Zayn pushes off the wall. He smiles at Niall as he passes him, fingers brushing against Niall’s cheek as he goes.

Niall doesn’t have a moment to process what that invitation could possibly mean because behind him three boys cry out for him, accusing Marcus of hogging the icing.

>>>>

Zayn’s cabin is set up different from Niall’s, that’s the first thing he notices when he lets himself inside. Zayn’s bed is pulled away from the campers, in the far corner while the rest of them are lined up against the wall like at Niall’s. He’s got a cloth over the window; it’s definitely not a curtain, just a strip of fabric tacked into the wood of the cabin to keep the sunlight from filtering in.

Since there’s nowhere else to sit, Niall moves to sit down on Zayn’s bed, waiting for him. He can hear clanking in the bathroom, probably from Zayn having dropped something, if he had to guess, before the door swings open. Zayn grins when he sees him, moving almost poetically towards Niall, his movements smooth and swift.

“Didn’t hear you come in,” Zayn says, dropping his toiletries bag on his makeshift bedside table. “Scoot over.”

Niall’s not taking up much of the bed, no more than a spot big enough for his butt and a small bit of his thighs, but Zayn’s still motioning him over, shooing him with his hands.

Zayn seems to notice his confusion and laughs, crawling onto the bed despite Niall not having moved. He lies back, resting on the side next to the wall. And oh. Okay. He didn’t want Niall to not take up less of the bed; he wanted him to take up more. Zayn wanted him to lie back, or just shift against the wall.

“Where are your campers at now?” Niall asks, moving so that his back is rested against the wall, careful not to sit on Zayn’s pillow.

“They’re with Perrie, I’m not really sure what they’re doing, though. I think she’s got Louis’ cabin too, might have organized a game in the field, or something.”

“Is Louis with them?”

Zayn shakes his head. “Think I saw him and Nick when I was heading back here.”

Huh, Niall thinks. He wants to ask Zayn for more information, like what their body language was like, if Louis was screaming at him or ignoring him, if he heard anything that they said, but he doesn’t. Niall’s not sure who else knows about that, if anyone. Zayn probably doesn’t, so Niall swallows all those questions down, sliding down until he’s lying next to Zayn.

“How many people do you think are hooking up at this camp?” Zayn asks, tilting his head to the side to look at Niall.

“You mean right now?”

“Not this very second, but yeah, now…I guess.”

Niall breathes out, shrugging. “I know that Harry and Daisy are.”

“Everyone knows that,” Zayn laughs. “Harry’s about as subtle as a hurricane. He hung out in the arts cabin while his group was in there, kept trying to talk to me about it.”

“Yeah, he’s excited,” Niall says. That’s Harry. “But I’m not sure about anyone else. I know Liam and Leigh-Anne are both in relationships. Lou just broke up with her boyfriend, or so she says. Actually, I know last summer Perrie had a thing with someone, not sure if she’s got anything going on this summer. Why?”

“I was just wondering,” Zayn mumbles, scratching at his jaw. He’s got a faint trace of stubble growing; Niall can almost hear Zayn’s fingers rub against the hairs as he scratches. “I just wanted to know if there was anyone hooking up besides us.”

“Us?” Niall asks, trying to remain calm. Sure they’ve kissed, a few times. And sure Niall had kind of suspected and borderline hoped that there would be more going on with them; he wasn’t actually sure what Zayn thought about it. He thought they were just going with the flow, letting things happen. For all Niall knew Zayn had been kissing loads of people at camp. “We’re like—Um. It’s going to be a regular thing?”

“Well,” Zayn starts, slowly and carefully, rolling onto his side so that he can look fully at Niall. “It’s going to be a long summer, yeah? And I don’t know about you, but I think you’re really fucking fit.”

Niall’s throat feels like it’s closing. It’s almost like his body is thrown off, all his parts trying to remember how they’re supposed to function at that. Wow. Honestly, Niall’s not sure what to do besides nods, because okay. Yeah. Okay. He can get on board with this. “Yeah. Yeah,” he finally says, still nodding like an idiot. “Likewise. Yeah. You’re fit, as well, I mean.”

“That’s good,” Zayn agrees, his fingers move to press soft touches against Niall’s cheek.

This entire conversation is a preface to what comes next, Zayn’s fingers sliding from his cheeks to the back of his neck, as he leans down, gently coaxing Niall forward into a kiss. It’s different this time, Niall thinks, because he can feel his entire body reacting, with the pleasant curl in his gut shooting straight up his spine when Zayn licks into his mouth with a skilled and practiced ease.

Niall’s faintly aware of their surroundings and how they can get fired if anyone were to catch them. But everyone’s busy and the pleasure center of Niall’s brain is winning all arguments against sense and rationality.

Zayn’s words linger in the back of his mind; _it’s going to be a long summer._ And Niall’s body, his traitorous body is half hard just from the realization that it really was going to be a long summer, but it’s been so long for Niall. So long since he’s had a body pressed half against him, hips slowly grinding down in concise circles, knowing exactly where to put the pressure.

It’s a huge relief to feel Zayn pressed against him, knowing that he’s not the only one sporting a semi. And it’s an even bigger relief when Zayn gets his hands on him, fingers dipping into his shorts and wrapping around him.

Niall tilts his head back, groans, and thinks, yeah; it’s definitely going to be a long summer, but a great one.

>>>>

The campfire comes as a nice surprise. Niall had forgotten all about it, until his cabin had whined and asked why they weren’t allowed to go. Truth be told, Niall’s exhausted, worn out from his…activities with Zayn this afternoon. But that doesn’t change what his job is, so with a heavy sigh, Niall drags himself out of bed and allows his campers to drag him towards the bonfire taking place.

Certain that his campers are settled, Niall sets off to find his friends, the small group tucked away in the back; close enough to keep an eye on their campers, but far enough that they’ll choose to bother other counselors first.

“Where have you been?” Harry shouts at him, mouth full of marshmallow.

“In bed. I forgot,” Niall says, dropping down next to Liam. “Where’s everyone else?”

“Louis and Zayn are with campers. I’m not sure what happened, something about a fire,” Harry says, shrugging.

Liam rolls his eyes. “One of Louis’ campers burned themselves, took their shoes off and stepped on an ember. And Zayn’s helping his campers find sticks.”

Niall nods, grateful for an explanation that didn’t start and end with fire, especially since there are several of them happening around them, each little group gathered around their own fire pit, sharing stories and enjoying s’mores.

“Two more weeks until we get another break,” Liam says.

“Hmm, seems soon, doesn’t it?”

“Not soon enough,” Harry retorts, sounding thoroughly annoyed. “And true to his word, Louis has sabotaged Paul’s arrangements and now it’s just us. Just the five of us.”

“And Nick,” Liam adds.

“Yeah, and Nick.”

“Louis tried to make it so all the guys were there, but unfortunately some have to hang back to watch the campers.”

“It’s amazing how Louis always gets his way,” Niall says quietly, shaking his head. If anyone is capable of manipulating Paul into doing something it’s him. “He’s going to get us killed.”

“He’ll try, that’s for sure,” Liam mumbles, shaking his head. “But then again, it’ll be nice to just like, have it be us. It hasn’t been us for ages it feels like.”

“That’s because you went gallivanting off with your girlfriend, couldn’t wait to get rid of us,” Niall teases. “Are you going to try and sneak her into town or something?”

“No, that’s absolutely not fair,” Harry cries, trying to reach across the fire so that he can poke Liam in the leg. “If I’m not having sex then no one is!”

“She’s going on a cruise with her friends,” Liam says, swatting at Harry’s stick. “And shut up, there are children are around.”

Harry rolls his eyes and grumbles something under his breath. Niall wonders what has him in such a snippy mood, something seems off, but he doesn’t have a second to question it, because Harry is blurting out, “Daisy and I had sex in a canoe.”

Niall blinks, unsure if he heard that correctly. “A canoe?”

“Yeah, out on the lake.”

Okay. That’s—well, Niall knows that he doesn’t really have room to talk about not doing sexual things at a camp full of children, but at least he was locked away in a cabin. He didn’t—Well; Niall didn’t do anything on a surface that one of the campers will use.

“What the fuck, are you serious?” Liam asks, obviously just as confused as Niall, definitely more outraged than he is. “Harry!”

“We weren’t anywhere near camp, and we cleaned it off afterwards,” Harry says defensively, like that makes it any better.

“Harry, you can’t do something like that,” Liam cries out, confusion gone as he slips right into outrage. “There are children!”

“What can’t Harry do?” Comes a voice from behind Niall. It’s Zayn, dropping down to sit on the dirt next to Niall. He hands him a stick, long with a thin edge, perfect for shoving a marshmallow on. Niall’s stomach flips at the sight of him, something light and fluttery.

“Nothing, Harry’s just a pervert,” Niall mumbles, watching as the corner of Zayn’s mouth quirks up.

“So nothing new,” Zayn says quietly, low enough that only Niall hears it as the other three argue, Harry and Louis laughing at Liam. Apparently the canoe story was a lie, just something cooked up to see how Liam would react. Niall doesn’t have it in him to care, because for some reason, everything Zayn’s just said is hilarious, forcing a laugh out of Niall that’s so vigorous it rips through him, causing him to clutch his stomach and fall back onto Zayn. With Niall’s head resting on his shoulder as he laughs, Zayn bites down on his lip to stop his own laugh from spilling out.

“What’s so funny over there?” Louis shouts at them, eyeing them suspiciously.

“I don’t know, he just started laughing,” Zayn laughs, taking the bag of marshmallows that Liam hands him.

“I’m sure,” Louis says, giving them one last look before he goes back to teasing Liam.

“So what are we supposed to do with these?” Zayn asks, holding the bag in front of Niall’s face. “He just handed them to me.”

Niall raises an eyebrow, taking the bag from Zayn. “You’ve made s’mores before, haven’t you?” Zayn shakes his head. “You’re lying!”

“I’m not.”

“Oh god, okay. I’m going to show you. Hold your stick out,” Niall instructs, taking the end of it and shoving a marshmallow on. “Alright, one second.” He does his own next before he drops the bag between them. “Now, you just have to hold the marshmallow over the fire. Or in it, depending on how you like yours.”

“What’s better?” Zayn asks, following Niall’s instructions. He looks skeptical, his marshmallow hovering a good six inches above the flames licking into the air.

“I like mine burnt, charred, nice and black,” Niall notes, shoving his directly into the center of the flames. “But if you just wanted them warmed up a bit, leave it there. Actually, lower it a bit more. It’ll take ages to get that thing warm.”

“How am I supposed to know?”

“You’ve really never done this before?”

“No. I mean, I’m sure my parents would have liked to do this with us. My little sister would probably love something like this, actually,” Zayn says.

“You’ll have to show her. Teach her everything I’ve taught you, huh?” Niall winks, relishing the laugh that escapes Zayn’s lips. “Okay, now bring your stick here. Right, good job. So, this is where it gets good. I’m going to hold these two graham crackers and this bit of chocolate, right, and you put the marshmallow between.”

“Like this?” Zayn asks, the white blob hovering between the crackers.

“Perfect,” Niall says, sandwiching the marshmallow, pulling it off and then holding the finished product like an advertisement model on television. “And here you have it, a s’more.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it.” Niall does his own, nodding at Zayn to take a bite. He still can’t believe that he’s never had one, but watching Zayn’s skeptical look change, morphing into a smile as he chews. “Amazing, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, it’s great,” Zayn says around a mouthful of food.

Zayn’s smiling at him and in the brief lull in conversation Niall realizes that the fluttering in his stomach hasn’t stopped, only gotten worse with the longer Zayn looks at him.

God, he’s in way over his head. This was supposed to be casual, he thinks, judging from some of the things that Zayn’s said, but Niall can’t stop his insides from acting like it’s something more.

>>>>

Niall’s cabin doesn’t look very happy to see him when he picks them up to take them to the lake. They all wave goodbye to Caroline as she packs supplies up and then leave the theater cabin with their shoulders slumped. Perrie’s cabin looks about the same, whining to her and asking why they can’t stay longer. Perrie rolls her eyes, offering Niall a wave before she drags them away.

“Well, is anyone going to tell me how it was?”

“It was amazing,” Amaury cries, hands moving wildly. “Caroline is going to let us put on a play with Perrie’s cabin. We’re going to show it to the whole camp!”

“And I’m the star,” Oscar says, pressing a hand over his heart.

“You are not,” Ryan says, glaring at him. “We haven’t decided anything yet, not officially. We’re still planning it.”

“That’s cool,” Niall says, smiling at them, remembering Zayn mentioning it on their day off. “Can you tell me something? Or is it a big surprise?”

“Well, it’s going to have dragons,” Henry says, nodding seriously. “Zayn’s been helping us make one. It’s made out of cardboard and it’s going to be huge!”

“Big enough to fit a body inside,” Marcus says.

“I don’t think death would be a good theme.”

“No, so someone can control it. I’d like to play the dragon, if I can,” Marcus decides. “I’ll talk to Caroline.”

They continue to talk as they enter their cabin, all of them rushing to grab their swim clothes. It takes several long minutes – and several fights- before they’re ready to head down to the lake, all of them running ahead when they see that Zayn and his cabin are already down there.

Niall could tell something was off when everyone was telling him about the play and Mason hadn’t spoken up. And watching him now, dragging his feet and walking with Niall instead of everyone else, he knows for sure that his suspicions were correct.

“Mason, is everything okay?” Niall asks, touching Mason’s shoulder gently.

“Yeah, I guess,” Mason mumbles, sighing.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“You can tell me if something is bothering you,” Niall presses, because he’s not sure if Mason isn’t telling him because he doesn’t want to or if he thinks that he can’t.

Mason shakes his head, sighing once more before he runs off, taking off across the field towards the lake.

>>>>

Niall takes his time getting there and when he does, all of the campers are already in the water, splashing around and having fun. All except for one, one of Zayn’s kids, who is standing at the edge of the water with Zayn knelt down in front of him.

Niall lets them talk, kicking off his shoes at the end of the dock. He pulls his shirt off and tosses it down on top of his shoes before he walks towards the middle, sitting down, and putting his feet in the water, watching his and Zayn’s campers.

It’s hot out, the sun beating down on him in the late afternoon sun. He can feel sweat dripping down his back and he has a strong urge to jump in the water with the boys, but then Zayn’s sitting down next to him. He looks worried and exhausted, emotionally drained.

“He’s homesick,” Zayn says before Niall gets the chance to ask what’s wrong. “Nick said he didn’t want to do anything, just sat to the side. He thinks he might have cried a bit.”

“It happens. Most, if not all, are going to feel that way at some point,” Niall explains, shrugging. They’re kids, it happens. “You can’t really stop it from happening.”

“I know,” Zayn mumbles, sighing. “It’s just hard to know what to say to them. I mean, they all know they’re going home. They just miss it. And when you miss it, sometimes it feels like you’re really not going to be going home.”

“You never really know, honestly. You just have to let them know that they will be home soon enough and that their parents would want them to have fun. And maybe, if you think they won’t break down, take them to Paul for an extra phone call home.”

Zayn nods, looking away from Niall towards the little boy he was talking to. He’s now in the water and from what Niall can tell, he’s trying his hardest to have fun with the other kids. Whatever Zayn said seems to have worked, Niall thinks.

“Yeah, it’s just hard sometimes,” Zayn mumbles. He smiles at Niall, sighing once more. Niall squeezes his hand because he gets it. He felt like absolute shit the first time one of his campers cried, but it’ll get easier.

Zayn squeezes Niall’s hand back before he lets go, kicking his legs in the water.

“You didn’t put on sunscreen, did you?” Zayn asks, squinting at Niall. Niall shakes his head and Zayn laughs, pulling a tube out of his pocket. “I figured.”

Niall grins, as he turns, happy to have Zayn’s hands on him again. If it weren’t for the other boy Niall would be red and sore, and positively miserable.

>>>>

Zayn looks terrified, white knuckling the sides of the canoe as he sits there, waiting for Niall to push him out onto the lake. It was his idea to go out there, to spend their free hour out on the water, and as brave as he’s trying to look, Niall can see right through his façade.

Niall sighs and wades out into the water, his shoes and the bottoms of his shorts getting wet because of it. “We don’t have to go out there,” Niall says, watching as Zayn’s jaw sets stubbornly.

“I’m fine.”

“I’m just saying, we don’t have to if you don’t really want to.”

“How likely are these things to flip over? That’s all I’m worried about,” Zayn whispers, tilting his head so that he can see Niall.

“On the lake, not at all, because there’s no current. You’re moving it with your oars. Unless you do something stupid like rock it, then you’ll be fine,” Niall promises.

Zayn nods once then exhales. “Right, then off we go, I guess.”

Niall looks at him for a moment, noticing the visible difference in Zayn’s shoulders. He still doesn’t look certain or confident about this, but he’s not going to change his mind. So with a nod, Niall moves back towards the end of the canoe, pushing it off the shore and then hopping in the back.

He focuses on getting them away from the shore, paddling across the lake. He’s careful not to move much more than he needs to, because there’s still a tense line to Zayn’s shoulders, no matter how much they’ve relaxed.

It’s not until they’re halfway out that Zayn looks over his shoulder and says, “It’s not that bad. I thought there would be like… I don’t know, I guess I just thought we’d be moving more, like not so much in the sense that we’re going across the lake, but like, we’d be struggling to stay afloat.”

Niall laughs, shaking his head. “It can get difficult, sometimes, when you’re on fasting moving bodies of water, like rivers. But we’re fine out here.”

“It’s nice, actually. I didn’t really believe my campers when they got out of these things with Liam the other day.”

Niall watches him as he continues to guide them towards the center of the lake. It’s easy, soft gentle strokes of his oar. Zayn finally relaxes up front, sighing as he leans over, letting his fingers brush against the top of the water. The sun is hanging lower in the sky, hidden behind Zayn’s head, creating a halo of light behind him as he touches the water.

He looks beautiful and at ease, content with himself and everything around him. Zayn looks over his shoulder and smiles at Niall, his lifejacket making a funny noise as he does it. Niall smiles back at him, lifting the oar out of the water and setting it down inside the canoe.

Niall slips off the little bar he was sitting on to stretch out, motioning for Zayn to copy him.

“Is that safe?”

Niall shrugs. “No safer than sitting up there, I reckon.”

“Except for the fact that the bars are going to make it harder for us to escape when we flip over,” Zayn retorts but he’s moving, his face whitening when the canoe rocks. “Now what?”

“Anything you want.”

Zayn nods and leans back, flipping up the back of the life jacket so that he can have a cushion as he leans against the bar. He doesn’t say anything, just sighs and stares up at the sky.

Niall’s happy to follow his lead, closing his eyes and listening. He can hear some of the campers, but mostly he can hear nothing, just the sounds of his breathing. It’s a nice change of pace, he thinks.

The most interaction they have is Zayn’s foot tapping against his leg occasionally, but it’s enough. It’s more than enough.

>>>>

There are six of them on this trip into town, with three bedrooms at the motel. Louis looks murderous at the idea of Nick joining them, even more so when Liam suggests that he and Nick room together. Louis tries to argue it, and Niall tries to help him, but without telling everyone else why he doesn’t want to sleep in the same room with Nick, they both lose that battle.

Niall feels bad when he gets paired up with Zayn. He offers to trade but Louis shrugs him off, stomping towards his room to dispose of his bag so that they can go to the bar.

“Do you have the feeling it’s going to be a long night?” Hot breath against Niall’s ear asks. He shrugs.

“Probably,” Niall mumbles, walking with Zayn towards their room.

At the bar the tension seems to be gone, thanks to alcohol, Niall thinks. Louis drinks more than he should and starts getting loud, him and Liam dancing a few feet away from their table. Harry and Nick are talking, two beers in front of them as they laugh.

It leaves Niall and Zayn to fend for themselves, which is fine. Zayn’s a pleasant weight pressed against his side, a heavy arm wrapped around his waist as the other bobs his head to the music.

“You can drink, you know,” Niall tells him, because right now neither of them is. Niall’s not really in the mood, drinking just the one beer to keep Louis happy before he switched to water.

“Nah, I’m good,” Zayn mumbles, lifting up his glass of water to prove it. “I don’t really care much for showing back up to camp hung over and miserable.”

“You’ll be good by the time we get back, though.”

“Still.” Zayn shrugs, thumb swiping against his bottom lip. “Besides, who wants to miss the entertainment of Louis trying to dance?”

Niall laughs, hand covering his mouth as he watches Louis throw his hands in the air, hips swaying as he jumps around, him and Liam moving in circles around each other. As ridiculous as they look, they’re having fun, so Niall doesn’t pay them any mind.

“I thought days off were supposed to be relaxing,” Nick mumbles, rubbing at his face. Niall rolls his eyes, just because he’s a good friend and Nick fucked his best friend over…somehow. “I’m exhausted.”

“You could always head back to the motel and go to sleep,” Niall tells him, trying to keep his tone neutral.

“I’d rather not be sleeping when Louis comes back. He’d probably drive a stake through my heart, or something.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to switch rooms?” Harry asks and judging from the look on his face, he’s asked this question a few times. Niall wants to know what he knows, what lies Nick told him. “I mean, we didn’t really think it would be this big of a deal.”

“It’s not. It’s fine,” Nick says.

Niall wants to tell him to quit complaining about it then, but he doesn’t. Of course he doesn’t. Secretly, and he’ll never admit this if anyone were to ask, he’s glad that they’re sleeping in the same room together. Maybe now they’ll solve whatever shit they have going on. Selfishly though, Niall just wants to make sure he gets to share a room with Zayn tonight. For reasons.

“How long do you think they can last?” Zayn asks, pulling Niall’s attention away from Harry and Nick.

“Who? Louis and Liam? Oh god, all night, probably. If I know Louis, then yeah, all night, we’ll have to drag them out of here.”

Zayn pulls a face at that, shaking his head. “I’d rather not do that.”

“No one does, that’s why we make Liam do it.”

“What about when Liam’s his partner in crime?”

Niall shrugs. “We make Liam do it,” he repeats. It’s just how it is. Liam will take care of Louis and everyone else, no matter the condition he’s in. That’s just the type of person he is.

Zayn nods, scratching at his jaw for a second as he thinks. He wets his lips and then takes a drink of his water, turning back to Niall to say, “Well, now that I know someone is going to be here to get them back, do you want to get out of here?”

“Now?”

“Whenever,” Zayn says, shrugging. “But I meant now, yeah.”

“Okay,” Niall agrees, slipping off his chair and grabbing his wallet off the table.

They say goodbye to the rest of them, letting them know they’ll meet them at the donut shop in the morning. Louis points between Zayn and Niall, making kissy faces behind Zayn’s back. Niall glares at him, choosing not to retaliate…not until he’s standing behind Nick, when he makes a little heart out of his fingers. If looks could kill…well, it’s a good thing Niall’s not staying.

>>>>

Just like last time, Zayn turns their air on high, setting the temperature as low as he can. Niall wants to ask why he does it, if he just runs at a hotter temperature or what, because it’s fucking cold, but it’s Zayn’s room too, and this way Niall gets to cocoon himself in the blankets.

Across the room Zayn is already stripping out of his clothes, toeing out off his boots, tugging off his shorts, and pulling his shirt off. Niall follows his actions, watching as Zayn crawls onto the bed, lying back with a sigh.

There’s something about the view, the way Zayn’s feet are shaking to an imaginary beat with his fingers folded together in the horrible glow of the motel lighting that gets to Niall. A heavy tug in his gut that sends him stumbling onto the bed, kneeling beside Zayn and watching, taking him all in.

Zayn has a playing card tattooed on his ribcage and Niall reaches out to touch it, his fingers trailing over it easily as Zayn hums, eyes still closed. Niall wonders what it felt like when Zayn got that, if he clenched his jaw shut and braved it, or if he needed someone or something to hold onto, to anchor him through the pain.

“Did it hurt?” Niall asks and Zayn shakes his head, hair scratching against the pillow.

“Not too much. It’s not the best place, though, but it wasn’t awful.”

“What about this one?” Niall asks, fingers tracing the wings along his collarbones, past the Arabic lettering and straight to the pair of lips sitting in the center of his chest. “Did this hurt?”

“A bit.”

Niall hums, tracing over the lips, dragging his fingers down to the heart tattooed on Zayn’s hip. He traces over it, staring at the black ink and wondering why Zayn got it, if there’s a story hidden beneath it or if he got it on a whim, if he waited until he was there to decide, picking what felt right in the moment.

“Hey.” Niall looks up to see Zayn staring back at him, with a look on his face that Niall couldn’t read no matter how badly he wants to. And does, he wants to know what this is for Zayn, what it means to him. Niall knows how he feels but Zayn’s different; it feels impossible for Niall to gauge if this is just a summer fling or more.

“Come here,” Zayn says, gently tugging on Niall’s wrist, trying to pull him down.

Niall nods, reaching over to shut off the light as he lies down next to Zayn, half on the bed and half on top of him. One hand moves instinctively to cup Zayn’s cheek as he leans in for a kiss.

There’s something different about this one, a heat…a fire. Niall can feel the flames licking through his chest, through every patch of skin that Zayn’s finger glides over. It feels like Zayn’s on a personal mission to learn every curve and sharp angle that makes up Niall, so Niall follows suit, dragging his hands and touching in every place that he can, dipping his fingers into the waistband of Zayn’s boxers.

Zayn releases a breathy moan when Niall presses into slick heat of his body, and that’s it. That’s it for Niall. It feels like every fiber of his being locks in on Zayn, trying to calibrate with his as he chases after the sound, kissing him deeper.

Niall’s loses himself in it, one finger in and then another and then another until Zayn’s shaking, body shivering at the sensations Niall’s creating. Every moan that escapes Zayn’s lips sends a jolt of pleasure down Niall’s spine, curling upwards into his heavy straining cock.

Everything in this moment feels right, like tiny locks have clicked into place. And later, when Niall’s buried deep inside of him, Zayn’s fingers digging into his shoulders, Niall leans down and kisses Zayn and hopes that there is more to this thing than just a long summer.

>>>>

They get back to camp later than intended the next day. It’s after dinner, during the rest period before lights out. Mason is sitting on the steps of the cabin, he looks miserable. Niall moves silently towards him, while Mason twiddles his thumbs, staring at his hands in his lap.

“What’s going on, Mason?” Niall asks, startling the small boy. He holds his hands up, waiting for Mason to relax before he sets his bag down. “You alright?”

Mason shrugs, as Niall sits down next to him. “I don’t know,” he mumbles.

“Why are you sitting out here by yourself?”

“I’m just thinking.”

“About?”

Mason sighs and bites down on his lip, his cheeks turning red. “Do you like girls?” He asks finally, looking up at Niall, sincere and curious.

Niall’s not sure why he’s asking the question, if he wants to know because he does or because he doesn’t. There’s a long list of possibilities, none of which he’s prepared for. “Um. I have. Once or twice.”

Mason nods. “I hate it,” he says, with as much conviction as a child his age can have. “I don’t know what to do.”

Niall breathes out. Okay, yeah, he can work with this. Niall can give advice. It’s not exactly on his job description, though, helping the kids out when they’ve got a crush, but it happens. They’re humans, and it’s better Niall help them when they ask instead of letting them wallow away, stewing in their misery and giving them nothing more than a horrible summer.

“Well, I might be able to help, if you tell me what’s going on,” Niall reasons, watching as Mason looks at him skeptically for a moment before he nods.

“It’s Iva,” Mason says and Niall nods. He knows the one, tiny brunette from Perrie’s cabin. She’s loud and loves to tell Niall what to do when they cook; aside from that, she’s funny and helpful, always volunteering first to aid Niall in every task. “She’s ruining my summer.”

Niall has to bite on his tongue to stop from laughing. “I don’t think she’s doing it intentionally.”

“But she’s still doing it!”

“Is she ruining it because she doesn’t like you back? Or is she ruining it because you’ve got a crush on her?”

“She doesn’t know,” Mason says. “I haven’t even talked to her yet. I don’t think she even knows my name.”

Niall nods, pretending to consider it for a moment. “Well, I think that’s your problem. You have to talk to her.”

“Niall, be serious,” Mason groans, shoving his face in his hands. He mumbles something that he can’t quite make out, so he merely pats him on the back, doing his best to soothe him.

“I know it’s not the best advice, but you’ve got to talk to the person you’ve got a crush on,” Niall says, watching as Mason pulls a face, tugging down on his cheeks. “If you don’t talk to her, how will you know?

Mason groans once more, long and drawn out. “I’ll try, but if it doesn’t work then it’s all your fault.”

“I’ll accept the blame,” Niall laughs, ruffling Mason’s hair once more. He grabs his bag and helps the boy up, patting his back and joining him in the cabin.

The other campers are much happier to see him, boosting his ego immensely.

>>>>

It’s no surprise when there’s a bunch of noise outside of his cabin’s door after lights out, not to Niall, and not to his campers. There’s a tiny part of Niall that thinks he should have sought out Louis, instead of the other way around. But still, at least he’s here.

Louis stumbles his way into the cabin, grinning at Niall as his campers rush inside.

“What’s going on?” Niall asks, checking to make sure all the kids are inside before he shuts the door.

“I promised my kids we’d get up to no good,” Louis says, kicking off his shoes and climbing into Niall’s bed. “What’s worse at summer camp than running around after dark?”

“Letting them canoe around the lake.”

“Don’t let them hear that.”

Niall pretends to zip his lips, slipping onto the small bed and lying beside Niall, listening as their campers make a bunch of noise. There’s a bunch of whispering going on two beds away from Niall and he knows that he should pay closer attention to that, because the last thing he wants is a series of pranks to ensue.

“So, how were things with you and Zayn last night?”

Niall hums. “It was—um. Yeah. Nice, I guess. What do you know?”

Even in the dark Niall can see Louis roll his eyes. “We’ll pretend I’m dumb, for the sake of young ears.”

“Yeah, alright,” Niall mumbles. Zayn must have said something. Or Louis is more perceptive than he’s let on. “It’s just a thing, is all. He’s really great, but I don’t think anything’s gonna happen once summer is over.” No matter how badly he hopes the opposite.

“Do you want it to?”

Niall breathes out and shrugs, because he doesn’t really know. Well, he does. Niall wants it to happen, but there are a lot of signs, big neon ones telling Niall that it’ll never happen. He doesn’t know where Zayn lives, if it’s close, or what his plans are after camp.

Niall doesn’t know any of that, for all he knows Zayn has someone waiting for him back at home and he’s just trying to have a little fun for the summer. It’s a long summer, after all, just like Zayn told him. What happens to them once the summer ends isn’t something they’ve talked about, despite how much it should be.

“I guess that’s up to Zayn,” Niall says finally, because he knows what he wants. The decision isn’t entirely his, though.

Louis sighs next to him and it looks like he wants to say something about that, but he shakes his head instead. Louis bites down on his lip, just as a scream from the other side of the room erupts, the entire cabin laugh hysterically at it, he says, “You gonna ask me about last night?”

“Thought about it,” Niall mumbles. “Do you want to tell me about it?”

Louis sits up a bit, checking on the campers. Niall rolls onto his side and sees them all crouched in the corner on the bed furthest from them, flashlight pressed to one of Louis’ campers faces as he tells them ghost stories.

“I should start by saying that you shouldn’t have let me drink.”

“You wanted to,” Niall defends.

“Still, one of us should have had rational thinking.”

“Well, I—“ Niall sighs. Yeah, he definitely should have acted like a better friend. A wave of guilt washes over him because he thought about it, thought about stepping in and offering up his bed so that Louis wouldn’t have sleep next to Nick. He should have done something. “I’m sorry.”

“Oh shut up,” Louis mumbles, shoving gently at Niall’s shoulder. “I was joking. I wanted to drink, so I drank. It’s not your job to monitor my behavior.”

“I know, but I knew you didn’t want to share a room with him so I—“

“You wanted to share with Zayn, it was my idea to room you two up. I just didn’t think when Liam and Harry established room assignments that would leave me with Nick. They’re the ones that are shit friends.”

“Harry doesn’t think about stuff like that.”

“I know he doesn't,” Louis sighs, sounding fond and exasperated all at once. “It’s not his fault anyway, so whatever, I guess.”

Yeah, whatever, Niall thinks. “But what happened?”

“The short version, drunk Louis is an idiot.”

Yeah, that probably is the short version. But Niall doesn’t want that version. That version could apply to any day, not just last night. “Why’s drunk Louis an idiot?” Niall asks once more.

Louis sighs. “He believes everything drunk Nick says.”

“And what did drunk Nick say.”

“Drunk Nick drunk confessioned me. Or maybe— I don’t know. He started talking about last summer, when we were both trying to fall asleep. And like, I didn’t want to hear it. I kept telling him to shut up, at least I think I did,” Louis mumbles, frowning for a second. “I’m not really sure, to be honest. But he kept talking at any rate.”

“And?”

“And apparently he freaked out. He said some bullshit line about his feelings or something. He couldn’t handle them. I think that’s what he said.”

“Uh huh,” mumbles Niall, nodding. “What were those feelings?”

Louis shrugs. “I don’t fucking care,” Louis says defiantly, squaring his jaw as he stares at the ceiling of Niall’s cabin. “It’s bullshit anyway. People don’t disappear because they have positive feelings for someone. That’s why you stay with someone.”

“Well, someone might run away if they were feeling things before they thought they should, or if they were worried about how the other one might have been feeling,” Niall says carefully. Without the details, Niall has no idea what really happened, but if Nick ran away because of his feelings – feelings that sound positive – Niall’s sure that there has to be more than what Louis is telling him. “Do you know how you feel about Nick?”

“I don’t feel anything,” Louis says, fierce and sure, but there’s an undercurrent of insecurity that Niall doesn’t miss. He sounds like he’s trying to convince himself of this and not Niall. Which yeah, probably is the case, if he were to guess. And this time, his first act of being a good friend in days, Niall’s just going to let his friend believe what he wants. It’s what he needs.

>>>>

“Alright, remember, we’re following the trail,” Niall tells his campers, snapping his fingers to get their attention. “This is important, so make sure you listen.”

“Louis’ cabin is already going,” Henry whines.

“I don’t care about that. You just have to listen for a second,” Niall sighs, resisting the urge to rub at his temples. The hike is one of the things that everyone looks forward to, walking through the woods to nowhere in particular. “Stay on the trail. No wandering. If you lose me, don’t worry, we’ll meet back together at lunch.”

The kids nod their heads in an exaggerated fashion as he finishes off the instructions that Paul told him to give. Honestly, they’re all just going to do what they want. After a while, only a few of the kids are going to remain concerned with where he is and what he’s doing.

“Alright, now get going.”

Niall throws his book bag over his shoulders, shoving his arms into the armholes. Most of his campers run off towards the woods, wanting to catch up with everyone else; with the exception of Mason and Ryan, the two of them waiting patiently for Niall to get himself and his supplies together before they head out for the hike.

“Mind if we join you?” Someone asks and Niall turns to see Zayn and a bunch of campers. Only one of them are from Zayn’s cabin, another from Liam’s, and two girls from Perrie’s, one of them Iva, the girl Mason told him about.

“No, not a problem at all,” Niall says, smiling at Zayn before he turns around. He gives Mason a look, one that he hopes tells Mason this is the perfect opportunity to get to know Iva. Mason must understand because he glares, just shy of stomping his foot on the ground and telling Niall to shut up, if he had to guess. “Right, off we go.”

The trek through the woods is a good one, Niall thinks. It’s not as hot as it has been lately, shaded under the canopy of the trees above. There’s a light breeze, the wind licking across Niall’s skin as they move. They’re not at the end of the group, but they’re nowhere near the front. He can make out a few of his campers ahead of them, Amaury and Oscar walking with Louis, and the rest of them hanging around Harry and Daisy.

There are little red flags in the ground marking the trail, a task Liam took upon himself to complete the day before the hike. It’s nice and helpful, Niall supposes, letting them all know where they’re supposed to go, especially in case a child wanders off, as they do.

Niall takes a deep breath and hikes on, adjusting the bag on his shoulders.

>>>>

There’s still half an hour until lunch and Niall knows that they’re slowly approaching the meadow that Paul wants them to eat at. He’s not sure anyone else does, so he suggests they veer off course for a minute, to go check out the creek that he knows is nearby – just to give them some time to do something besides sit at the meadow – they all happily agree.

“I thought there would be more complaints,” Zayn says, shrugging off his bag as they approach the creek.

“There will be on the way back, but right now it’s fun,” Niall says, dropping his own bag and taking a seat in the rocks. “Don’t get in the water, your shoes will get wet and you’ll be miserable.”

“If we can’t get in then what are we doing here?” One of Zayn’s campers asks, Diarra, Niall thinks. It might be his twin brother, maybe. Niall’s never had the best of luck telling them apart.

“Throw some rocks, enjoy the view,” Zayn tells him, sitting next to Niall. “You’re creative, I’m sure you’ll find something to do.”

Diarra huffs, turning away from them, probably to mock them to the other kids since they can no longer see his face. Whatever, Niall thinks. He can get in the water, but Niall’s not going to listen when he complains about walking in wet shoes. That’ll be his problem.

“You know what’s going on between them?” Zayn asks, drawing Niall’s attention away from Diarra and towards Mason and Iva, the two of them just now making it to the creek.

“Fully, no, but I know there is a crush involved from one end,” Niall says, trying to get a read on the pair.

Niall has no idea what he’s searching for. It’s been forever since he was young with a crush, where it felt like the end of the world if the other person didn’t share those same feelings. For Mason’s sake, Niall hopes Iva has some kind of feelings for him, even if they’re only the friendship kind.

Iva walks past them, going to join the other kids, but Mason stops, crouching down next to Niall.

“What do I do?” Mason asks, looking panicked and worried, like his life is on the line. “She knew my name!”

“I knew she would,” Niall says. “Have you two been talking a lot?”

“Almost everyday. We’re doing the play together.”

“What’s going on?” Zayn asks, pretending like Niall didn’t just spill Mason’s secret a second ago.

Mason looks at Zayn, then at Niall. Niall nods once and says, “You can trust him.”

“Have you ever liked a girl before?” Mason asks Zayn and Niall has to cover his mouth to hide his laugh, pretending it was nothing more than a coughing fit. It’s the same thing Mason said to him and it’s nothing short of amusing to hear him say it again to Zayn.

“So you like her,” Zayn repeats, rubbing his jaw. “Well, you could always just try telling her.”

Mason’s eyes go wide, his mouth dropping open. “You’re insane.”

“Maybe, but that’s usually the only way. All you have to do is tell her, if you think she feels the same. Do you think that?”

Mason shrugs. “She’s been eating dinner by me everyday, and we’re always painting together and stuff. Does that mean she likes me.”

Niall shrugs this time. “It’s hard to tell unless she tells you.”

“She said I was cute,” Mason says, eyes squinted as he thinks. “That means she likes me. Right? You only think people are cute if you like them, otherwise-- Is that how it works?”

Niall has to stop himself from saying, _when you’re your age._ That makes him sound old, and he’s not sure he really wants to answer how you know when you’re his age. Mason can figure that out on his own when the time comes.

“Alright, here’s the thing, Mason,” Zayn says, leaning over to get a little closer to Niall. “Sometimes people try and drop hints, you know. Little clues for someone else so that maybe they’ll figure out you have feelings for them. Only, some people aren’t— Some people don’t catch on to these clues,” Zayn pauses, his gaze flicking towards Niall’s briefly before he continues. “That’s why you have to just tell them. If you want someone to know that you like them as more than a friend, you tell them.”

“That sounds awful,” Mason says, frowning.

“Sometimes it can be, that’s why it’s important to make sure you’re going to be okay if they say they don’t feel the same way. Sometimes people are better off as friends, or…whatever.”

“Or whatever?”

“Yeah, or whatever,” Zayn says, looking at Niall.

Niall misses out on what happens next because his mind turns fuzzy, his brain going static. He can’t be sure, not really, but he’s almost positive that Zayn is trying to give him little hints. Which would just be odd, because Niall knows he likes him well enough, enough to want to hook up with him all summer. And dropping little hints definitely means that he’s not the kind of person to take his own advice.

But Niall can’t be sure.

>>>>

Niall can’t be sure, but he wants to be sure. So when lunchtime rolls around, after Niall gives food to all of his campers, he sets off in search of Louis.

“I need to talk to you,” Niall says when he finds him, tearing his attention away from a conversation with Harry.

“Who?” Louis asks, staring at him.

“You. Can we talk?”

“Yeah, I guess,” Louis mumbles, grabbing his stuff and standing.

Niall takes him away from the group, dropping down next to a tree for shade. Louis raises an eyebrow in question, biting down on his sandwich as he waits for Niall to talk.

“This is going to sound really juvenile, but like. Okay, so hear me out.”

“Okay.”

“One of my campers has a crush on another camper. And well, I gave him the advice to talk to her, which he did.”

“Alright, so what’s the problem?” asks Louis, his mouth filled with food. Disgusting.

“I’m not finished,” Niall sighs, rolling his eyes. “Anyway, today he was asking me you know, typical kid stuff, wanting to know how he can find out if she likes him. Well, Zayn said that he should just tell her.”

“That’s good advice,” Louis says.

“Yeah, but like, when he said it he kept looking at me. And I don’t know. I kept getting these vibes. I feel like he was trying to tell me something.”

Louis looks at him for a moment, taking his time to finish chewing his food. He makes a show of swallowing it and looks at Niall like he’s grown four more heads. “God, you’re an idiot,” he mumbles, shaking his head, waving his sandwich around in the air. “Both of you are. Go take his advice and tell him you love him.”

“I don’t love him,” Niall protests. He _likes_ him. It’s totally different.

“Like him, whatever,” Louis retorts. “Just do it before summer ends and you’re both miserable.”

Niall nods. Yeah. Louis is probably right. It’s silly not to do these things when you want to do. People deserve to hear your feelings about them, Niall knows this, he does. And it’s just like Zayn said, some relationships are better suited for different things. Sometimes you fall in love or like or lust with the wrong person and it doesn’t always end tragically, sometimes it ends better than you ever wanted.

Niall doesn’t know what’s going to happen with him and Zayn, but regardless of whether they’re meant to be friends or more, Zayn deserves to know the truth.

“Yeah, alright,” Niall agrees, finally pulling out his own sandwich. He can feel himself relaxing enough to eat and he’s starving, the combination of exercise and the sunshine making him feel hungrier than usual. He’s readying to take a bite out of his lunch when he remembers something Louis said. “Wait,” Niall says, turning to look at Louis. “Are you miserable?”

Louis shakes his head. “No, I’m actually having the time of my life.”

“I’m being serious, Louis.”

“Me too,” Louis grins, popping a grape in his mouth. “I keep finding new and creative ways to insult Nick. It’s made this hike far more enjoyable. You should try it.”

“Yeah, right. I’m sure it’s a grand time,” Niall mumbles, shaking his head as he bites down on his sandwich. “You should try taking Zayn’s advice.”

A grape hits Niall in the forehead. He blinks, turning back to look at Louis. Louis throws another and Niall catches it in his mouth, laughing at the frown on Louis’ face.

“You’re an idiot,” Niall says, mimicking Louis moments ago. “Both of you.”

Louis rolls his eyes and eats another grape in response.

>>>>

The girls are thrilled to hear that they’re making brownies today. Niall had given them options, told them that they could make chocolate chip cookies or brownies. It was unanimous.

Niall’s pleasantly surprised with how well the girls listen and do everything that he says correctly. There are no eggshells in the batter, no spills with the milk, nothing. Niall almost feels proud, knowing that he’s helped them learn more about cooking from working in the kitchen with him. The girls look proud of themselves as well, grinning when they perform every task with ease.

“So what do we do next, Niall?” Abby asks, whisk in her hand as she waits for Niall’s instructions. Abby and Brianna are the only two that haven’t been listening to his instructions, forcing him to work with them privately while the other girls talk.

“Did you add your eggs?”

“Yes,” Brianna says, elbow resting on the counter.

“Then all that’s left to do is stir it up. You have to make sure you do it well, because otherwise there will be clumps.”

“No one likes clumps,” Abby says with a teasing grin, copying Niall’s words from when he rattled off the instructions earlier.

“Yeah, smarty pants. No one likes clumps. Now, get to stirring.”

“How long do we stir?” Briana asks, sitting up a bit to watch Abby as she works, little arm straining as she stirs.

“You’ll know when you’re finished,” Niall says, leaning against the counter and watching them work. He’s bobbing his head along to a song inside his head as they work, trying to pass the time away as the girls pass the bowl back and forth to take turns stirring.

A quiet giggle escapes from Abby’s lips as Brianna stirs and Niall raises an eyebrow at them, following her gaze to see Zayn entering the kitchen.

“Hi Zayn,” Abby says, wiggling her fingers at him. She grins when Zayn returns the greeting, turning to Niall to say, “Zayn’s really cute.”

“Yeah, he’s not bad,” Niall agrees, biting down on his lip to keep from laughing.

“What are we making?” Zayn says, leaning against Niall’s back to check and see what the girls are doing.

“Brownies,” Niall answers, watching as the girls giggle at each other. “We were just talking about you.”

“Oh yeah?” Zayn asks, raising an eyebrow. “Good things, I hope.”

“Niall thinks you’re cute,” Brianna says, giggling like mad.

Zayn laughs along with them, winking at Niall as he does it. Once the girls have settled down, focusing back on the brownies, Zayn says, “If he thinks I’m cute do you think that means I can have two brownies at dinner?”

Abby shrugs. “Maybe if you tell him that he’s cute.”

Zayn pulls a face, looking at Niall. “Maybe. We’ll have to see,” Zayn teases, causing the girls to erupt in another fit of giggles. Niall only rolls his eyes, nudging Zayn with his elbow.

>>>>

Zayn’s foot brushes against Niall’s under the water, just for a second as they both swing their legs back and forth. The water ripples around them, disturbed every time Niall moves his legs.

Niall kind of wishes he were fully submerged in the lake, just so he can cool his body down for a brief minute, to wash away the sweat pooling along his back. But his laziness wins the battle, forcing him to stay where he’s sat for just a little while longer.

“You know the play is coming up, right?”

Niall nods. His cabin has been talking about it nearly every day, unable to keep quiet about it when they’ve left the arts cabin or the theatre cabin, or when they share an activity with Perrie’s cabin. They’re beyond excited.

“Yeah, the kids were telling me about it the other day. They said it’s in a few weeks.”

“Yeah, they’re so excited,” Zayn says, his lips curled upwards.

“Trust me, I know that one.”

Zayn breathes out a laugh. “I think they’re mostly excited about the dragon they made. It’s what started the whole thing. I asked them one day, what do you guys want to do while you’re here? Amaury shouted out that he wanted to make a dragon and that was it. The play was born.”

“Sounds like things are going to be interesting,” Niall says, staring at Zayn’s profile. “Are you almost finished with everything?”

“No,” Zayn replies, shaking his head. “We need to paint one of the backdrops still. Do you wanna help?”

Niall laughs, shaking his head as he stares at Zayn. “I’m not an artist,” he says. Honestly, if he tried to help all he would do is embarrass himself. He’ll leave that to Zayn and the kids.

“You don’t have to be an artist to paint,” Zayn says, rolling his eyes. “Just come by the cabin tomorrow during our free hour. Wear old clothes.”

Niall sighs, shrugging. “Yeah, alright,” he says, standing up. Zayn raises an eyebrow at him and Niall grins, right before he jumps into the water.

>>>>

Niall hasn’t packed clothes to ruin with paint, so he hopes that a pair of athletic shorts and a white tank will do. He hasn’t painted anything since he was…well, it’s been years, really, not since before high school, at the very least. It’s just never really been his thing. He’s not good at it, so he doesn’t bother. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t enjoy it, watching other people and supporting them, because he does. It’s fascinating, watching the way people can bring their ideas to life.

Niall only hopes that Zayn’s idea is a small one, one that someone without any talents can master.

The door to the arts cabin is swung open, a large rock holding it in place. It allows Niall to see inside, to get a good look at the structure Zayn has set up. Right now it’s white, nothing more than a blank canvas. Zayn’s standing in front of it, barefoot without a shirt on, setting paints up on the tables for them to use, probably waiting for Niall before he gets started. He hasn’t heard Niall approaching, so Niall uses the opportunity to copy Zayn and kick his shoes off at the door.

“What’s going on?” Niall asks, startling Zayn.

“Nothing, just getting out everything that we’ll need. I’m not sure how much we can get done today, but I figure, at the very least, we should have the sky taken care of.”

Niall nods. As he gets closer to the background he can see the pencil drawings on it, mapping out the clouds and some shrubbery. It’s a simple outdoor scene, nothing major. Niall can handle this.

“The kids and I have been working on the other one,” Zayn says, motioning towards the far side of the cabin. Niall turns and sees that there’s another background, this one made to look like the interior of a bedroom. “They wanted to do the more complicated one, so that means we haven’t had time to do the simple one.”

“What’s the play about?” Niall asks, taking the paintbrush Zayn hands him.

“Can’t tell you, I’ve been sworn to secrecy,” Zayn says, grinning as he dips his brush into sky blue paint. “Now, come on, Monet, we’ve got work to do.”

Niall pretends to know who Monet is as he follows Zayn’s actions, dipping his brush in the paint and spreading it across the white surface. It might be cardboard, Niall’s not sure. It feels thicker, but the camp only has so many supplies, so maybe it’s not.

Niall does everything he can to copy Zayn, dipping his brush in the paints at the same time and painting in smooth, clean strokes until his brush looks like he needs more paint, and then he starts the process over again.

It looks decent so far, a nice section finished after only a short amount of time. And it might not sound like a big accomplishment, painting one color on one surface, but Niall’s happy with the progress. One approving nod and Niall goes to get more paint, ready to finish now that he knows how easy it is and how well he’s doing.

As Niall’s getting paint he feels something wet hit his back and he frowns, because he must be imagining things. Only it happens again, the wet hitting the back of his neck. He sets his brush down and rubs his fingers against his neck, frowning even more when his fingers come back blue.

Niall turns and Zayn’s smiling at him, brush held in his hand. Zayn flicks his wrist once, sending more blue paint flying towards Niall’s face.

“Are we about to have a paint fight?” Niall asks, wiping at the paint on his cheek.

“No,” Zayn says, tossing his brush down on the table. “I’m trying to get you to lighten up, you look so serious.”

“I’m trying to do a good job.”

“And you are, but I want you to have fun,” Zayn says.

“I am. Kind of,” Niall admits, sighing. “Alright, I am having fun but I’m also worried about ruining things. Now that you’ve gotten that confession out of me, are you going to continue to toss paint on me?”

“No,” Zayn says, shaking his head and taking a step closer to Niall. “But I am going to need you to loosen up.”

“And how are you going to do that?”

Niall’s answer is the soft pressure of Zayn’s lips against his, Zayn’s fingers carding through his hair as he kisses him. Soft, languid movements of their mouths as Zayn presses him against the table, one hand in his hair as the other dips into his shirt, warm fingers gripping onto Niall’s hips. Niall uses the opportunity to wrap his own fingers around Zayn’s skin, feeling the way his muscles flex under his hold.

The kiss does exactly what it sought out to do. Niall can feel his shoulders loosen, the static in his mind quieting, forcing away all the thoughts of his mind. It’s a much better way to spend his free hour, Niall thinks, sliding his fingers from Zayn’s hips to his ribs, tugging him in a little closer.

Zayn pulls away and Niall whines, pulling him back once more to continue the kiss. He wasn’t ready for that to end, not even a little bit.

Zayn laughs against his mouth, kissing him softly once more. “We have to finish the sky,” He murmurs against Niall’s lips.

“Think we earned a break,” Niall mumbles, still holding Zayn close.

“As much as I’d love to finish what we started, believe me I do, I promised the kids that it’d be done by tomorrow.”

Niall sighs, using all of his willpower to pull away from Zayn. His eyes flutter open to reveal Zayn smirking at him, rubbing at his bottom lip.

“Yeah. Alright. We can paint.”

“I’ve got another free hour tomorrow, same time as you,” Zayn says, as Niall grabs the paintbrush. “I won’t make any promises to the kids.”

Good, Niall thinks stubbornly. Tomorrow they’ll get to finish this. The kissing, not the painting.

>>>>

Niall opens his eyes slowly, the sound of one of his campers yelling at someone else forcing him out of his pretend nap. He was never really going to get any sleep lying in the grass with his arms folded beneath his head, but the rest would have been nice.

Liam’s rushing out into the field to see what the problem is. From here, all Niall can make out is that Amaury thinks someone from Louis’ cabin – Niall’s not sure who, he can’t really tell them apart from behind – tripped him in order to take his flag. God, Niall doesn’t even care. Flag football is one of Niall’s least favorite things, but it keeps the kids from tackling each other, so he understands why they play it.

Niall closes his eyes once more when he sees that Liam won’t need his help with this one. Liam’s better at getting the kids to calm down on the field, Niall doesn’t know why he feels like he’s shit at it, but he’s happy to let someone else take over for once.

The shouting stops and Niall assumes the game continues, Liam coming back to sit next to him. It’s quiet for a few moments before Niall hears Liam say, “You’ve got green paint on your next.”

“I was helping Zayn with something,” Niall says, eyes still closed. They finished the sky and the clouds, and now, with just one more shrub left, they’re almost finished with the entire backdrop. And even though they’ve only been working on it for three days, Zayn still finds it funny to drip paint on Niall when he looks too serious. “The play is coming up and he needed someone to help him paint the backdrops.”

“It’s really great how much time you and Zayn have been spending together,” Liam says.

“Yeah he’s great,” Niall says, blinking his opens his eyes to squint at Liam, wondering where he’s going with this.

“Yeah, he is,” Liam says. “I don’t know, I just think it’s great that, like, he’s found someone to spend time with. He was really struggling with homesickness for a while. It was… It was pretty bad, I think.”

“He was?” Niall asks, because he remembers little comments that Zayn made about it ages ago when his campers had shown signs of wanting to go home. But Zayn never went into details about it, he never left clues that he was feeling the exact same way. Niall feels bad now, for acting so dismissively about the topic. “He told you about that?”

“Twice, but he never really said much. I guess I could just tell something was off with him,” Liam explains, tugging at the grass between them. “But it seemed to have completely disappeared once you two started talking. I mean I’m sure he still felt it, but not as strongly. I think it helped to make a connection with someone here.”

Niall nods, wetting his lips as the weight of Liam’s words hit him. Maybe he’s over thinking them, to believe that he’s done anything more than to make the summer bearable for Zayn, but it feels like… Well, it feels like there’s more, one of those things that Niall has been wanting to talk about with Zayn but hasn’t.

“Where’s Louis at?” Niall asks finally.

“At his cabin, said he wanted to lie down for a bit.”

“Right,” Niall nods, brushing off his knees as he stands. “I’m gonna run back to my cabin real quick. Are you good with the kids?”

“Yeah, no problem,” Liam says, smiling up at him.

>>>>

Niall jiggles the handle of Louis’ door, finding it locked. He frowns, shaking it again. It doesn’t budge. It’s not common for someone to lock their door besides at night, so he’s not sure if Louis did it by accident or what, so he knocks, fist against the wooden surface.

There’s movement inside, Niall can hear it, the faintest rustling of sheets.

“Louis, I know you’re in there,” Niall shouts, banging on the door some more. “Liam said you were here. Open up. We need to talk.” Niall pauses his knocking to listen, trying to see if he’s woken Louis up. He has to have; he’s not exactly being quiet. “Louis!”

“Um, can you come back?” Louis says back. And no, Niall won’t be rescheduling; he wants to talk now. He needs to talk.

“No, I need to talk to you now.”

“Well, I’m busy.”

Niall frowns. “Doing what?”

There’s a heavy sigh followed by footsteps, as someone marches to the door. Niall takes a step back, ready to let whoever it is swing the door open without slapping him in the face.

Louis is standing there, staring at Niall, unimpressed and annoyed. He’s not alone though; Nick is behind him, tugging up a pair of jeans, hair a mess.

Oh.

“I can come back,” Niall mumbles, trying to apologize with his eyes. He didn’t realize…well—Louis could have said something.

“I’ve got a free hour before dinner,” Nick says, running his fingers through his hair as he picks his shoes up off the ground. “We can try this again.”

“Whatever,” Louis mumbles, folding his arms over his chest. “Don’t know what makes you think I want to see you again.”

Nick grins at him, slapping Louis on the ass as he walks past him. Niall counts to three, waiting until he’s positive that Nick is far enough away so he can shove Louis inside of the cabin.

“What just happened?” Niall shouts, slamming the cabin door shut. “I thought— What happened?”

Louis shrugs. “Zayn gives great advice.”

Niall squeezes his eyes shut, running his fingers through his hair. “You told Nick your feelings?”

“Yeah. Wasn’t that the deal? I tell Nick and you tell Zayn?”

Niall’s cheeks heat up at that. He wasn’t aware it was a deal, per se. Niall knew that Louis wanted him to talk to Zayn. Niall also knew that he told Louis to talk to Nick, but he didn’t… Well, he uh… “Um. I—kind of.”

Louis’ eyes narrow. “You didn’t talk to Zayn?”

“Well, I mean. Define talk to.”

“Niall.”

Niall sighs, tossing his hands in the air. “That’s why I’m here.”

Louis rolls his eyes, leaning over and grabbing a pillow. He chucks it at Niall’s head, hitting him. Niall glares and throws it back at him, huffing when Louis catches it and drops it back down on the bed.

“You’re the biggest idiot. He does everything but say he likes you, practically gives you the green light on his feelings. Zayn hints at it all the time, apparently, and you’re over here…what? Wanting advice on if he likes you or not? Like you’re one of my ten-year olds.”

“Um. Well no. Not, um,” Niall stutters, scratching at the back of his neck. He is acting a bit like an idiot, he supposes. It’s not that hard. And they’re not kids anymore, so Niall shouldn’t be acting like one. It’s hard, though, when children surround you every minute of everyday.

“Next time you’re with him, just tell him. Or don’t. Whatever,” Louis says; shrugging as he drops down onto a bed that definitely doesn’t belong to him. Louis doesn’t have Spiderman sheets. “You could always wait until he annoys you, shove him into the side of the cabin and tell him how you feel. That’s what I did with Nick.”

“You’re both weird,” Niall says, sitting down besides Louis.

“Yeah, but it works for us.”

Niall sighs. Unfortunately weird doesn’t work for him and Zayn. Their relationship is different.

>>>>

The play sneaks up on Niall faster than he’s ready for. After a long week of sitting outside while his campers practice lines inside, of helping Zayn get the backdrops and other props to the theatre cabin. With all the work that everyone’s doing to get it ready in time, the week flies by.

“You guys are going to do great,” Niall says, stopping backstage to wish his campers good luck. “I’ve got a seat in the front row, so I’ll be right there the entire time.”

“Are you allowed back here?” Ryan asks, helping Mason into his costume.

“I just wanted to tell you guys good luck,” Niall tells him, as Oscar starts shoving him away.

“It’s supposed to be a surprise, Niall,” he says as an apology, just as he shoves the curtain closed in Niall’s face.

Well. Fine.

The play starts with Caroline’s voice, acting as a behind the scenes narrator for everyone. It starts off like your everyday fairytale, Caroline telling them the story of a woman, a princess, who was cursed the day she was born, forcing her to spend her life in solitude. 

Mason’s the knight that saves Iva, the princess, taking a long journey on foot with his best friend, an animal made of cardboard and voiced by Oscar. So far, Niall hasn’t seen the rest of his campers, but it’s only the beginning, he knows. But even still, he finds himself on the edge of his seat waiting to see what’s coming, despite how familiar the story feels.

At some point, Zayn slips into the seat next to him, in the middle of Mason and Oscar’s fight with the dragon. There’s a lot of running in circles, since the dragon is cardboard, it’s mouth open while someone backstage roars. Niall can’t help but laugh as he watches, clutching at his stomach as Mason dives on top of the dragon, collapsing a section of it before he wiggles around a bit, only to reveal himself when he jumps up, cardboard sword held in the air in triumph.

“We stole the idea from Shrek,” Zayn whispers in his hear, while everyone applauds Mason and Oscar’s heroic efforts to rescue the princess.

“I knew it was familiar,” Niall says back, shaking his head.

As the play goes on, Niall feels Zayn’s hand against his between the chairs. Zayn’s fingers brush his own before he loops their pinkies together; just as Iva shows Mason and Oscar how to successfully spend a night in the woods.

>>>>

Their next day off comes a few days later, when Niall’s almost positive that he’s been drained of all his energy. It’s the perfect reboot that he needs. Somehow, Louis was able to convince Paul to let the six of them get another trip alone. And just like last time, the sleeping arrangements are the same. Harry pouts the entire time, because he doesn’t think it’s fair that Nick and Louis get to have sex while he listens to Liam snore. Liam argues about that, letting Harry know just how much he snores.

“You want to find our room?” Zayn whispers and Niall nods, grabbing his bag and dragging his feet up the stairs towards the second floor, to room 207.

Niall drops down on the bed when they enter, toeing off his shoes and letting his eyes shut. He can hear Zayn chuckle softly from across the room, but he doesn’t say anything and Niall’s grateful. He doesn’t fall asleep right away, not fully, he lies there, feeling like he’s not quite in his body and listens as Zayn goes to the bathroom, locks their door, and then climbs into bed next to Niall.

The airs on cold again, kicking on as Zayn throws the blanket from the other bed on top of Niall. Niall hums in appreciation and then snuggles closer, burrowing under Zayn’s arm and drifting off into a peaceful slumber.

They wake hours later, when the sun is just beginning to set in the sky. Niall’s warm and not as exhausted as he once was. He can still feel the nagging sensation of exhaustion tingling on his nerves, trying to force him to close his eyes once more. But the heavy feeling of hunger wins out, forcing him to kick off the blankets with a groan.

Zayn’s blinking awake beside him, wiping a bit of drool out of the corner of his lips as he looks around, trying to figure out what time it is.

“I’m starving,” Niall whines, stretching out and rolling onto his side to face Zayn.

“We can go to the restaurant down the street,” Zayn tells him, sitting up slowly.

Niall nods and then follows Zayn’s lead, putting on their shoes in silence so that they can go. Niall doesn’t bother to ask if they should check on the others, he figures that they’re probably already out, or sleeping, since exhaustion was licking at everyone’s bones before they got here.

The restaurant is relatively empty, causing the waitress to wave them off wherever they want. Zayn chooses a booth by the window, sliding in on one side while Niall takes the other. It’s nice and Niall doesn’t even care about opening the menu, he wants everything. Of course, that’s just a dream, instead he orders a burger and cheese fries, along with a chocolate shake. Zayn gets the same.

“Where do you think everyone else is?” Zayn asks, breaking the silence between them only once their food is placed in front of them.

Niall shrugs, rubbing at his eyes with one hand and grabbing a fry with another. “Probably sleeping, everyone’s exhausted.”

“Yeah, I kind of wish we were still sleeping.”

“We should have eaten before we slept.”

“Should have, could have, but didn’t,” Zayn says, smiling as he lifts his burger. “It’s crazy to think about how the summer is almost over.”

“I know, I feel like it snuck up on us,” Niall says. He wonders how many looks they would get if he just rests his head on the table, closes his eyes and keeps eating. Maybe he can just open his mouth and let Zayn shovel all the food inside. Maybe not.

“It’ll be weird to go home after all this,” Zayn mumbles, staring at his food for a second. “At first it was weird to be away from home, and now I’m thinking about how weird it’ll be to go back. Kind of funny.”

Niall sighs, shaking himself once more as he takes a bite. He can enjoy a meal with this—this boy. His—This Zayn. “It’ll be weird to wake up and realize that there aren’t a bunch of kids around you or that you can sleep in and not have to usher a bunch of kids into the bathroom. There are no arguments about showers and teeth brushing. So it’s different, but it’s home. You’ll adjust faster to this change.”

“Yeah, it’ll be nice to not have to drag anyone out of bed besides myself for a change.”

Niall laughs. Yeah, that’s always one of the perks. “Do you know what you’re doing once you go home? Like, I guess—I don’t know. You have any plans?”

“Not immediately. I’ve got, like, three weeks of just hanging out with my family before I go back to school.”

“Where do you go?” Niall asks and he’s faintly aware that this is the first time he’s asked this question, the first time he’s really asked Zayn about his life outside of camp. Not because he’s not interested, he is, he’s just never really thought about it, he guesses.

“I’m transferring, actually,” Zayn says, wiping at the corners of his mouth with a napkin. “I’ll be starting at Harlow, it’s almost three hours from home. It’s why I took this job, wanted to see how well I’d be able to handle it.”

Niall stares at Zayn for a moment, blinking. Harlow is Niall’s school’s rival, just twenty minutes away from him, thirty if traffic is bad. And it means Zayn will be close, Zayn will be there anytime Niall wants to see him. It’s far more than he thought, the two of them having a shot at something outside of camp.

He doesn’t say anything about it, and later, when he thinks about it in bed, curled up next to Zayn, he’s not sure why he didn’t.

>>>>

Zayn takes Niall’s hand as he leads him across camp, walking him towards the lake. It’s one of the last free hours that they have left this summer and Zayn said he wanted to spend it down at the creek, the same little spot where they enjoyed one of their first free hours together.

It’s bittersweet walking through the woods with Zayn, following the sounds of running water. After spending such a long time here, Niall’s going to miss it. That thought surprises him. Although, if he’s being honest with himself, he’s not sure if he’s going to miss the camp as much as he will the people, the other counselors to be more specific.

“It’s beautiful out here,” Zayn says, gravel crunching beneath his feet as they finally reach the creek. “I mean we always knew that, but I’m gonna miss it.”

“I won’t miss the mosquitoes,” Niall mutters, swatting at one on his arm. “But they’ll follow us home.”

“One thing you won’t be able to get rid of.” Zayn grins at him, tugging off his shirt.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m gonna brave the waters today.”

“Alright, let’s go,” Niall says, tugging off his own as he wades into the water. At its deepest it comes up to the middle of his thighs, he guesses, but they stop when it hits their knees.

Zayn’s arms are held out, his neck stretched out as he stares up at the sky. He looks beautiful in that moment, with the sun shining off his skin, creating a gentle glow. Niall sighs and like a flash of lightning in the sky, Niall knows that it’s time to have the conversation he’s been putting off all summer.

“You remember how you told me about your transfer to Harlow?” Niall asks.

Zayn’s eyes flutter open as he looks away from the sky, staring at Niall. “Yeah.”

“Well, uh. Have you ever heard of Hale?”

“Yeah. It’s like, twenty, maybe thirty minutes away from Harlow. Why?”

Niall takes a deep breath. “That’s where I’ll be once camp is over.”

Zayn looks at him, his face and body language giving nothing away. He doesn’t look happy, but he doesn’t look angry. He doesn’t even look okay with the news. Instead he looks like Niall said he likes chocolate or something random. And maybe Zayn doesn’t understand why Niall told him this. Maybe he doesn’t understand that Niall wants to see him once the summer ends, because for Niall, there’s so much more and ending things with them going home doesn’t feel right. Niall can’t allow it to happen.

But he could, if that’s what Zayn wanted. Niall hopes that it’s not, though.

“Zayn?”

And like that, Zayn moves, his leg swinging up and splashing Niall with a bunch of water. Niall sputters, blinking the droplets out of his eyes and staring at Zayn.

“What was that for?” Niall cries, staring at Zayn like he’s lost his mind.

“You big idiot,” Zayn grumbles. “This whole time I’ve been thinking about how we probably won’t see each other again, and you’re going to be right there.”

“I’m sorry,” Niall mumbles, hoping that it doesn’t sound like a question. He means it, but he’s confused on whether Zayn’s angry or not. “I didn’t know.”

Zayn laughs, this time reaching down into the water to splash Niall, sending even more water crashing down on him. He’s still laughing when Niall rubs at his eyes, licking his arm to get the taste of creek water out of his mouth. Zayn’s closer than he was, standing directly in front of Niall as he brushes a few droplets off his cheek.

“I can’t believe you,” he mutters, sliding his hand from Niall’s cheek to the back of his neck, pulling him in for a kiss.

Niall realizes then, for the first time, that he doesn’t need to worry about voicing his feelings to Zayn. He realizes then, kissing Zayn as the other boy is unable to suppress his smile that sometimes feelings don’t need to be talked about to be understood. Niall realizes then that it was never about the summer being a long one, it’s always been about something more.

>>>>

The end of camp comes with a heavy heart, if Niall’s being honest, watching his campers leave after spending months with them. They’ve formed a bond, living together and spending most of their time together. So far only one of them has cried, Ryan’s tears wetting the front of his shirt as he cries that he doesn’t want to go home and how much he’s going to miss everyone. Niall promises that there’s always next summer. It does nothing to soothe Ryan’s sorrows.

“Are you coming back next summer?” Oscar asks, standing next to his mother while his father loads the car.

“I’m not sure,” Niall says honestly. He loves his job, even if it’s only for the summer, but he’s really not sure. If he doesn't’ find a job off campus during the year then probably, but a probably means yes to a child Oscar’s age. “Are you coming back next summer?”

Oscar shrugs. “It would be nice, but I don’t know.”

“Well, even if I’m not here, I bet you’ll still have fun.”

“Of course I will,” Oscar says and Niall huffs out a laugh, grateful for his honesty. Truth be told, Niall’s happy that Oscar isn’t upset about saying goodbye. The thing Niall hates most is the tears. He doesn’t know what to do about them. When the campers cry, Niall wants to shut down; he can feel it as he folds in on himself, his body trying to protect him, like he’s the one upset.

And he is, but he’ll never admit it to them.

And just like how the summer started, it ends with Niall and Mason, the two of them sitting on the porch of the cabin, Mason’s things behind them as they wait for his parents. It’s just the two of them, waiting, watching as the rest of the campers are shoved into cars and head home, the place they haven’t seen for months.

“What if they forget about me?” Mason asks, turning to look at Niall. “Do you think I can go home with you?” 

“Well, I don’t know. Harry’s giving me a ride home, we’ll have to see if we can fit you in the trunk,” Niall jokes, watching as Mason rolls his eyes. “They haven’t forgotten about you. They’re just running late, that’s all.”

“Yeah. I’m happy that I get to see them finally, I really missed them, but I’m also sad that I have to go home.”

“Yeah? You have a good summer, then?”

“The best,” Mason sighs, pulling his knees up. “But it won’t be so bad going home, I guess.”

“Why’s that?”

Mason shrugs. “Well, I’ve got everyone of my friend’s phone numbers, so I can still talk to them. And I also get to see my other friends. And my dog. I miss my dog,” Mason says, his brows pulling together. “You should tell them that we need a camp dog for next year.”

“That’d be fun,” Niall agrees, leaning back, his hands braced behind him. “And what about a special girl?”

“Niall,” Mason groans, nudging him with his elbow.

“No, come on. You never told me what happened. Did you take Zayn’s advice?”

“Yeah, I did,” Mason says, looking at Niall with a grin on his face. “She said I was cute again. I told you that meant she liked me. But I have her phone number, so I have to call her.” 

“I’m happy for you, buddy.”

“How long until I should call her?”

Niall laughs, reaching over to ruffle Mason’s hair. He’s going to miss him. Him and all his advice-seeking questions.

>>>>

Zayn’s at the lake, sitting on the dock with his feet in the water when Niall finally finds him later that evening, after the camp is emptied of all the campers, leaving just the counselors. Niall had tried looking for him as he waved his campers off, helping parents load up cars and making sure that his kids had everything they came with, but he didn’t have any luck. Zayn was nowhere to be found until now.

Zayn turns to look over towards him with a soft smile on his face when he hears him approaching. He waits for Niall to kick off his shoes and sit down beside him before he lets his head rest on Niall’s shoulder. Niall thinks he smells like a long day, mixed in with faint traces of citrus and his cologne.

“How was saying goodbye to your campers?” Niall asks, tilting his head to rest it on top of Zayn’s, listening as Zayn sighs.

“It kind of felt like graduation, saying goodbye to these people that you’ve spent so much time with. And you tell them bye and promise that you’ll see them again, but you know that you probably won’t,” Zayn says, lifting his head to look at Niall fully. “It’s bittersweet. I’m happy to be leaving, but kind of sad there are people I’m leaving behind.”

Niall nods, he understands and he thinks Zayn’s explained it better than anyone else, better than Niall could have. But… “You’re not leaving everyone behind.”

“No,” Zayn agrees, smiling once more. “I’m taking some of the good ones with me.”

“That you are,” Niall agrees, leaning over to kiss Zayn quickly, just wanting to feel his lips against his now that he knows it won’t be the last time. Now that he knows he can do this whenever he wants, for as much as he wants.

A quick kiss is never really that quick, not where Zayn are Niall are concerned and that’s when the rest of them decide to join them, Louis and Liam and Harry, all of them running down the dock, screaming as they approach. Niall and Zayn break apart just in time, the three of them diving into the water in front of them, sending a spray of water cascading down on Zayn and Niall.

“Did you really have to do that?” Niall groans, rubbing the lake water out of his eyes.

“Sorry, did we ruin a moment?” Louis asks, floating on his back and grinning devilishly at Niall.

“A bit, yeah.”

“Well now we can all share a moment,” Harry says, gripping onto Niall’s leg beneath the water, gently tugging on it. “Get in the water.”

“We don’t want to,” Zayn says, shooing Liam away from him. “That’s why we’re on the dock.”

“Veto. Party pooping not allowed,” Louis says, standing up and splashing them with water. “Get in.”

“No.”

“Get in,” Liam yells, laughing, turning it into a chant that Harry and Louis copy. They get louder and louder, shouting it, begging Zayn and Niall to join them.

Niall shares a look with Zayn as he sighs, standing up. Zayn follows. And with one quick look at the other, they jump, dropping into the water as the others cheer.

“That’s more like it,” Louis says, clapping Niall on the back as he swims off, trying to dive on top of Liam.

Niall shakes his hair, rubbing at his eyes as he stands, turning to face Zayn. Zayn looks a bit like an angry kitten, one who jumped in the tub thinking that they’d enjoy it, only to realize it’s not their thing. Niall tries not to laugh. Instead he steps closer, waiting for Zayn to get the water out of his eyes.

“You ready to go home?” Niall asks, watching a droplet of water roll down Zayn’s cheek, the soft pink glow of the sunset reflecting off his skin.

“I think so,” Zayn says, reaching for Niall’s hand under the water. “Definitely feel better knowing that you’ll be there, even if you’re not where I can have immediate access to you.”

Niall nods and stares at Zayn, so entranced by him, and completely unconcerned with the chaos going on around them. He can hear Louis shouting something about war, followed by the sound of a splash as he dives off the dock once more.

“You sure you want this to be a thing?” Niall asks, crouching down in the water, still holding onto Zayn’s hand as he feels the water pool around his shoulders.

“Well, it’s going to be a long wait for summer, yeah?”

Niall grins, watching as Zayn smiles back at him. He knows Zayn’s not concerned with summer or anything else, because now that their stay at camp is over, there’s no limit to the amount of time they can have together.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! You can find me on [tumblr](http://zaynlilo.tumblr.com), along with a [rebloggable post](http://zaynlilo.tumblr.com/post/123912684462/of-an-endless-summer-zayn-shrugs-unapologetically) for the fic!


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